The
Ideas of Liberty
From the Cato
Institute
Posted
Nov. 2000
The classical liberal,
or libertarian, approach to morality and politics brings
together related themes that will be both placed in
their historical context and woven together more tightly
in the coming modules. In this module, the basic ideas
of individual and imprescriptible rights, spontaneous
order, and the rule of law are presented and examined.
Each of these ideas is implicated in the others: the
spontaneous order of the free society is built on a
foundation of secure individual rights, and law is
intimately connected with liberty, for to be free in
society is for all to be equally subjected to the same
known law, a law that allows us to coordinate our
activities with others and thus to create complex forms
of social order. The deep roots of these ideas, reaching
back into antiquity, give libertarianism a solidity
other political philosophies lack.
Libertarianism draws on
a multitude of different sciences, or organized bodies
of knowledge, including history, philosophy, economics,
sociology, anthropology, and law. Thus, "The Ideas
of Liberty" devotes some attention to the status of
the human sciences and to the meaning and importance of
the principles of intentionality and methodological
individualism in properly grounded social science. In
addition to laying bare the scientific misunderstandings
and equivocations that lie at the foundation of
collectivist thinking, "The Ideas of Liberty"
explores the relationships of the individual to the
group, of action and design to order, of society to the
state, of coercion to persuasion, and of "natural
law" to "positive law." The ideas of
natural law, natural rights, and
"self-proprietorship" are traced through
history, from the ancient Greeks to modern times, and
used to illuminate the proper relationships between
persons and between persons and governments. There is
also a careful discussion of the relationship between
"rights" thinking and
"utilitarianism," which have been alleged by
some philosophers to be mortal enemies. The confusion is
eliminated by seeing "utility," or good
consequences, as the goal, and rights as the standard
against which policies and practice are judged.
Above all, libertarian
ideas are seen as emerging from a long history, rather
than as springing full blown from the head of this or
that particular philosopher. The treatment of the
relationship between the "liberty of the
ancients" and "the liberty of the
moderns" by Benjamin Constant, included in the
readings, is a clear statement of classical liberal
thinking and a rebuttal to "communitarian"
criticisms of liberal individualism.
Readings to
Accompany The Tapes
From Libertarianism:
A Primer: Chapter 1, "The Coming Libertarian
Age," (pp. 1-26); Chapter 2, "The Roots of
Libertarianism" (pp. 27-58).
From The Libertarian
Reader: Introduction (pp. xi-xviii); Benjamin
Constant, "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared
with That of the Moderns" (pp. 65-70).
| Some
Problems to Ponder & Discuss
•What is the
difference between "a Liberty for every Man
to do what he lists" (Robert Filmer) and
"a Liberty to dispose, and order, as he
lists, his Person, Actions, Possessions, and his
whole Property, within the Allowance of those
Laws under which he is; and therein not to be
subject to the arbitrary Will of another, but
freely follow his own" (John Locke)? Is
liberty the condition of being under no law
whatsoever or the condition of being subject
only to law that is equally applicable to all,
rather than to the arbitrary will of others?
•What role
does historical knowledge play in the grounding
of libertarian ideas? How does "the lamp of
experience" illuminate complex social,
political, economic, and legal orders?
•How can a
social science based on the intentionality of
human action understand establishments that are
the "result of human action, but not the
execution of any human design" (Adam
Ferguson)?
•How can
"a human community that successfully claims
the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical
force within a given territory" (Max Weber)
be brought under the rule of law? How
useful--and how firm--is the distinction between
"society" and the "state"?
•Are the
"laws of economics," for example, that
price controls tend to cause shortages and
queues, part of the "natural law"?
•Could one
defend individual liberty without appealing to
the idea of "a property in one’s
person"?
•How are the
statements "I have a right to do
X" (an assertion of "subjective
right") and "It is right that I
be allowed to do X" (an assertion of
"objective right") connected?
•What does it
mean for a right to be "absolute" and
"unconditional"? Does this mean that
there are no conceivable circumstances under
which it would not apply? Or are rights
"contextual" and dependent upon
certain conditions?
|
Suggested Additional
Reading
From How the West
Grew Rich: Introduction, (pp. 3-36).
Charles Murray, What
It Means to Be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation
(New York: Broadway Books, 1997). This elegant short
book sets out the arguments that convinced a
distinguished social scientist to adopt the libertarian
perspective.
Milton Friedman, Capitalism
and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1962). This book changed the thinking of countless
people who, through its pages, came to understand the
intimate relationship between the free market and
personal liberty.
For Further Study
Norman Barry, On
Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism (New York:
St. Martin’s, 1987). This accessible little book
presents an overview of classical liberal thinking,
focusing almost entirely on twentieth century thinkers.
F. A. Hayek, The
Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1960). This sometimes rather challenging
book synthesizes Hayek’s thinking on the relationships
among individual rights, limited government, the rule of
law, and the spontaneous order of a free society. The
most interesting—and least dated—chapters are in
Parts I and II (pp. 1-252) and the challenging
postscript, "Why I Am Not a Conservative," in
which Hayek argues for the principles of liberty as a
guide to reform of the political order.
Western Liberalism:
A History in Documents from Locke to Croce, E. K.
Bramsted and K. J. Melhuish, eds. (New York: Longman,
1978). This brilliant collection includes both classical
liberal writings and essays by some
"revisionist" or "modern" liberal
writers, such as T. H. Green and John Maynard Keynes.
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