Free Thoughts

Tom Palmer joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion on the two most common philosophical justifications for libertarianism.Typically we think of justifications for libertarianism as falling into one of two kinds of categories: consequentialism and rights-based. Are these two justifications necessarily at odds with each other?Tom G. Palmer is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, director of the Institute’s educational division, Cato University, Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, and General Director of the Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity.Show Notes and Further Reading:Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of MoralsAristotle, Nicomachean EthicsDavid Hume, A Treatise of Human NatureJohn Locke, Two Treatises of GovernmentJeremy Bentham, A Fragment on GovernmentRandy Barnett, The Structure of LibertyMurray Rothbard, The Ethics of LibertyStephen Pinker, The Better Angels of Our NatureJean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social ContractThomas Hobbes, LeviathanRichard Epstein, Simple Rules for a Complex World    Simple Rules Libertarianism.org lecture videoBertrand de Jouvenel, The Ethics of RedistributionGeorge Orwell, Animal Farm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re discussing a relatively unknown essay by Auberon Herbert called “The Ethics of Dynamite,” wherein Herbert compares the coercive political force of the state (the majority) to the coercive, terroristic use of force by the dynamiter (the minority), a 19-century reference to violent anarchist sects. Herbert points out that the means of the state and those of the dynamiter really do not differ all that much, and offers his solutions for “unmaking” the coercive nature of each.Jason Kuznicki is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound.Show Notes and Further Reading:Adam Smith, The Wealth of NationsThomas Hobbes, LeviathanHerbert Spencer, Social StaticsMurray Rothbard, The Anatomy of the StateSpecialization and Trade (video) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David D’Amato joins Aaron and Trevor for a conversation about the idea of voluntary socialism through the lens of the individualist anarchists of the 19th century. They discuss the life and philosophy of Benjamin Tucker, Voltairine de Cleyre, and others, and explain how the definitions of socialism and capitalism have changed over the years.David S. D’Amato is an attorney and a Senior Fellow and Trustee at the Center for a Stateless Society. He earned a JD from New England School of Law and an LLM in Global Law and Technology from Suffolk University Law.Note: In the show, D’Amato claims that Benjamin Tucker died in the 1920s; he actually passed away in 1939. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Aaron and Trevor talk about the tendency of the political process to group people into warring “tribes” when they otherwise wouldn’t. Trevor explains why this is so bad for society and offers several examples and solutions.Who decides what aspects of our lives can become politicized and which ones can’t? How are things distributed in a fully politicized world? What can we do about this tendency to politicize contentious issues? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patrick J. Michaels, the director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion about bias in science and how scientific findings affects public policy.The idea that science isn’t biased—or generally isn’t biased—is pretty widely held. But is that true? Is there something about science that makes it less susceptible to bias than other fields of inquiry? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jason Kuznicki, a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound, joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss historicism: the idea that historical forces work to determine the ideas and values of individuals, and that as a result, historical trends have a direction or purpose to them.To understand a person or event in history, you need to look at their historical context. That’s not so crazy all by itself—it’s actually pretty reasonable. But the trouble starts when historicist thinking begins to deny individual agency. Not always—but very often—historicism is at odds with methodological individualism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Boaz, the executive vice president of the Cato Institute, sits down with Aaron and Trevor to talk generally about the libertarian philosophy, and answer the following questions: Is there one set of ideas called libertarianism, or is it more a collection of different schools of thought? If the latter, what binds them together? How long has libertarianism been around? And if libertarianism is so great, why is there no modern libertarian nation? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to say that something is a market failure and that public policy ought to fix it? Can the government actually provide these goods? How often do these situations occur? What does economics have to say about these public goods problems?Van Doren explains several key economic concepts, including the economist’s definition of a public good, Pareto optimality, and Cosean bargaining.Peter Van Doren is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of the quarterly journal Regulation. He is an expert in the regulation of housing, land, energy, the environment, transportation, and labor, and has taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton University), the School of Organization and Management (Yale University), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alex Nowrasteh joins Aaron and Trevor to talk about immigration. Immigration policy provokes much debate, anger, and often some pretty ugly politics. But immigration isn’t just a matter of policy, of what effects immigrants have on America’s economic outlook—immigration raises important moral issues as well, because it impacts basic human rights.Nowrasteh is the immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle,Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury, Richmond Times-Dispatch,Huffington Post, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and elsewhere. He has appeared on Fox News and numerous television and radio stations across the United States. He received his B.A. in Economics from George Mason University and MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aaron and Trevor tackle a few listener questions in this episode, including the perennial classics: Who will build the roads? Who will “control” the corporations? Is there a libertarian position on abortion? What would a libertarian society look like? What about child labor laws? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.