Foundations of Libertarian Ethics

A legal system is an institution to provide dispute resolution through judicial, legislative and executive functions. The state is that which maintains in large part a monopoly over force, geography and the legal system.What’s wrong with a forcible monopoly? You are saying that you are the only one who has this right. Under anarchy there is equality of authority. No one has monopolies of force or jurisdiction. Dispute resolutions are referred to arbitration. Anarchy is founded when one bypasses the state into voluntary system and the state withers away. The bypassing strategy [voluntaryists] seems superior, but has little history of success. The takeover strategy [agorists] seems inherently unjust because it is using the same power, like voting.The tenth and final lecture from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

When can you respond to force? The four response positions range from “never” to “impose by force some further penalty on them”. A person’s capacity must be considered. Compensation instead of punishment is generally a libertarian society’s choice.Threatening to do something is not the same as doing it, but one cannot threaten violence against the innocent.For the most part, welfare recipients are not rights violators.The eighth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Does libertarianism require widespread acceptance of certain cultural values? One end of the spectrum says yes [thick libertarianism]. The other end says libertarianism does not require any other set of values except the non-aggression principle – the right not to have force initiated against them [thin libertarianism].Long argues that the essential core of libertarianism is non-aggression, but that other elements can be part of libertarianism without being essential. An argument against thick libertarianism is that the liberty goal can lose out to helping the masses goal – a danger that one might focus on one thing and drop the other.The ninth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Now we go from ethics to liberty. Justice, narrowly, is a legitimately enforceable claim. What is the consideration between justice, rights and utility? Justice seems more rule-oriented than rights. Libertarian rights theory can consider consequences.The sixth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

We have a right not to be aggressed against. Any other right has to be an application of my right not to have force initiated against me. Now, we need to do this with property rights. We need to treat the violation of property as aggression against self.Locke says that, because privately owned land is more productive than publically owned land, you have increased the common stock of mankind when you appropriate it. Should there be exceptions to rights for emergencies? Yes. Contracts have to be sustained to be enforceable. You can contract yourself into indenture, but not into lifelong slavery.The seventh of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Why should I care about anyone else but myself? We each have our own values to pursue. Is all valuation relative or neutral? The values we actually use seem to be agent neutral. We endorse these values both for ourselves and for others. Hobbes says that in a state of nature it is legitimate for everybody to do what they want. Socrates said that once you recognize that something is worth admiring, you will integrate it into your life.The fourth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Everyone has an ultimate end. What should the content of this end be? No concept of happiness exists without integrating the interest of others. Being an agent is being a living organism. Living organisms have needs. Aristotle feels humans are neither beasts nor God. Morality requires a minimum of prudence (self) and benevolence (others).The fifth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Claims of ultimate ends, like happiness or well-being, are impossible, says Hobbes. In this life, the fact that you are still acting shows that you have not achieved any ultimate end. Does action really express dissatisfaction? You can act to keep something happening, rather than to try to change things.An ultimate end is not praxeologically impossible. Is it required? Yes. There has to be some final end. There is a minimum threshold of things worth striving for. Above that level, you are happy. Once there, higher levels can make you happier. We are committed to having some overarching goals – but not impossible ones, nor ones too easy.The second of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Economics deals with the preferences you are actually acting on. The judgment you are not acting on could still be around. So, action does not imply total judgment.If we had free will we could control our actions. We can choose our overall pattern of actions. You are not stuck with any particular pattern. The more often you do virtuous things, the easier it gets. By changing our action we change our tendencies. Habituation can get rid of things that are expressible through action, but it might not be the case that I can get rid of trembling or flinching (non-rational expressions).The third of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

Praxeology is a set of conceptual tools about the theory of action. It is the basis of economic theory. Whereas much has been fleshed out about the economics of human action, there is little about the ethics and natural rights of human action.Aristotle starts his ethics with every aim seems to fulfill some good. Mises starts his ethics with every human action is purposeful. Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard are explicitly like Aquinas or Aristotle. One must say something generally about virtue. Mises says praxeology can advise you on means not ends.Thinking of ethics is not linear deduction; it is network. You ground ethics in subjective value.The first of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.