Sam Pawlett wrote:
>
> kayak3 wrote:
>
> > Has anyone on the list debated libertarians? What kinds of arguments
> > should we expect to encounter from the other participants? What kinds of
> > arguments do libertarians have problems with. Any references to studies
> > articles or books would be helpful. Especially regarding privatization
> > or government intervention vs libertarian style free markets. I also
> > expect to hear a lot about how wonderful countries like Chile and Hong
> > Kong are because they adhere to free market principles. Any info or
> > ideas would be appreciated.
>
> Oh,boy. If you are on the Marxism list, several of us recently had it
> out (quite politely I would add) with Chris Sciabarra an intelligent
> libertarian of the Austrian type. I don't know if these discussions are
> archived.
>
> There are different types of libertarians; property rights, Austrians
> and neo-classical economists(not all nc economists are libs.)are some of
> them.
>
> Property rights libs argue, following Locke in his 2nd Treatise on
> government, that everything follows from self-ownership. Further,
> property rights are absolute such that any violation of them is morally
> wrong.It follows that the only state that can be justified is of the
> "nightwatchman" variety, where all the state does is protect private
> property, enforce contracts and defend international borders.
> Austrians and Neo-classical economists use different arguments to try
> and show that private enterprise does the job better than any form of
> public enterprise and that socialism and planning--no matter how just--
> inevitably lead to political tyranny.
>
> There are huge problems with property rights arguments. The
> traditional objections are: Where did property rights come from? Noone
> has ever seen a property right. Assigning absolute property rights makes
> the argument totally circular.
> Austrians and Neo-classical people rely on faulty subjectivist
> epistemology for their theories. Planning=tyranny is an empirical
> question and some form of democratic planning has not been demonstrated
> empirically to be tyrannical or inefficient.
>
> Classic texts:
> Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick. Classic source of the
> property rights argument and other anti-socialist arguments.
>
> Socialism and Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises. Austrian.
>
> Murray Rothbard is another well known libertarian who is a kind of
> natural law theorist.
>
> Jan Narveson: The Libertarian Idea.
> John Hospers: Libertarianism
> Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom
> David Friedman: Machinery of Freedom
> Ayn Rand
> Libertarianism David Boaz (Cato Inst.)
> Classic Critiques:
>
> Against Capitalism by David Schweickert
> Self-ownership, Equality and Freedom by G.A. Cohen
> Anti-Libertarianism by Alan Haworth
> Conservatism by Ted Honderich
> A Matter of Principle by Ronald Dworkin
> Anti-Samuelson by Marc Linder
> Market,State, Community by David Miller
>
> any questions?
> Sam Pawlett