[P2P-F] Libertarians

Wed Oct 19 22:57:10 CEST 2011

The following article does not argue against either the value of individual
liberty or a preference for limited government but demonstrates that
attempts to derive the latter from the former are illusory. Scanlon's
remarks on what is natural and what is not about property rights [follow
link] are germane to this discussion.

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.5/ndf_t_m_scanlon_libertarianism_liberty.php

Libertarianism and Liberty How Not to Argue for Limited Government and Lower
Taxes *T. M. Scanlon*

*This article is part of Libertarianism and
Liberty<http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.5/ndf_libertarianism_liberty.php>,
a forum on arguments for libertarian policy conclusions.*

Libertarianism presents itself as a simple, clear, and principled view. It
appears to provide a moral basis, in the value of individual liberty, for a
specific political program of limited government and low taxes. The moral
significance of liberty seems obvious even to those who believe it is not
the only thing that matters. But the claim of the libertarian political
program to be founded on this value is illusory. *Three lines of thought
lead to conclusions that might be seen as libertarian. But none of these
shows that respect for the value of individual liberty should lead one to
support the political program of low taxes and limited government that
libertarians are supposed to favor. *

   - One route to libertarian conclusions appeals to an idea of productive
   efficiency.
   - A second, quite different view is what might be called
   “motorcycle-helmet libertarianism,” which gives fundamental place to the
   value of having control over how one’s life goes in important respects.
   - Enforcing any law involves coercively telling people what to do.
   Certainly this is true of property laws, which libertarians favor. So the
   libertarian idea is a narrower one, that no one should be coercively told
   what to do as long as he or she is not violating the rights of others. This
   intuitively appealing idea is the third route to libertarian conclusions,
   which starts not from the value of control over one’s life but from an idea
   of non-interference, given content by an enumerated list of rights.

**

**
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.5/ndf_t_m_scanlon_libertarianism_liberty.php
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