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 Contrac

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) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out 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? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jason Brennan joins Aaron and Trevor for a discussion about political obligation. Conventional wisdom holds that governments make laws and their citizens have a duty to obey them. Most people think that’s so obvious that we don’t even really need to discuss it. But is it? Governments certainly want us to obey them, but what sort of arguments are there for why we should?Brennan is Assistant Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Jason’s the author of three books: Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know, The Ethics of Voting, and, with David Schmidtz, A Brief History of Liberty. He is also a regular contributor to the blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Stacey Taylor joins Aaron and Trevor to discuss what society thinks is okay to buy and sell. Buying and selling some things—like books, cars, or houses—strikes us as fine. But even the thought of trading money for things like love or organs makes many people uncomfortable or even angry.Taylor is an Associate Professor at the College of New Jersey and the author of Stakes and Kidneys: Why markets in human body parts are morally imperative and the forthcoming book Toxic Trade? An Unapologetic Defense of Universal Commodification. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matt Zwolinski joins Aaron and Trevor for a look at the plight of poor people and how concern for the least well-off relates to libertarian thinking. Libertarians are often branded as being anti-poor and are frequently criticized for espousing a philosophy that only benefits the rich and privileged. But is that true?Zwolinski teaches philosophy at the University of San Diego, founded the Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog, and writes for Libertarianism.org. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Julian Sanchez joins Trevor and Aaron for a discussion on the political philosophy of Robert Nozick. Nozick’s 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia is a classic of modern philosophy. In it, he argues that the rights we all have as human beings dramatically limit what the state’s allowed to do. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Samples joins Aaron and Trevor in looking at the relationship between money and political speech. Campaign finance is a perennial issue, but much of the argument about it rests on often unexamined assumptions. Is money speech? If it is, can we still restrict its role in politics? If it isn’t, what’s its relation to political speech? What does it mean to say elections can be corrupted by too much speech?Samples is director of Cato’s Center for Representative Government, and author of “The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For this first episode of Free Thoughts, we want to look at politics and community and the relationship between them. Libertarians often get called “anti-community.” That’s an unfair charge, of course. But it’s a plausible one if you assume no difference between community and politics, between community and the state. This mistake is in fact a rather common one—and thus results in many bad arguments against libertarianism.So what is community? And what is politics? And can we have one without the other?Show Notes“What’s the Matter with Libertarianism?” by Peter Corning“Libertarians Are the New Communists” by Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.