Politics
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The bell curve of individual choice
What is the relationship between individual choice and collective choice? What should be the domain over which a democracy chooses? Prevailing answers to these questions are an important factor affecting the size of government. One argument why imperfect foresight should favor limited government, or no government at all, involves the difference between how individual and [...]
Beyond politics
In the introduction to his collection of writings, Socratic Puzzles, Robert Nozick writes that he never responded to the sizable literature on Anarchy, State and Utopia. His natural inclination would be to defend his views. As Nozick notes, “How could I learn that my views were mistaken if I thought about them always with defensive [...]
The addiction to politics
Can politics become an addiction? A more realistic question is to ask why politics is an addiction for so many people. The most straightforward answer would be that a compulsive interest in politics just reflects a natural preoccupation with advancing one’s interest (or that of others). But as was discussed in the previous installment, The [...]
The legacy of John Rawls
The Ludwig Von Mises Institute Senior Fellow, David Gordon, recently wrote an article on the legacy of the political philosopher John Rawls. In this piece, he discloses some interesting information about the relationship between John Rawls and Robert Nozick:
“In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, he had praised A Theory of Justice as a great work of [...]
Our inalienable right to low gas prices
As Americans increasingly feel the pain of long-distance commuting, economic ignorance of politicians combines with our perceived inalienable right to low gas prices to find a scapegoat in the world’s most hated minority in bad economic times, the speculator.
As the economist and political philosopher Anthony de Jasay recently pointed out, politicians seem to believe that [...]
Common political fallacies
In Cato Journal, Volume 28, No. 1 (Winter 2008), the independent scholar Anthony de Jasay reviews four common fallacies (as presented in the works of John Stuart Mill, Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Armen Alchian) that many social scientists and political journalists keep repeating without rigorous analysis.
The first fallacy is that production should be governed [...]
