Browsing the archives for the Political Philosophy category

Margaret Thatcher, The New Love of My Life
By: Barry Belmont

I am absolutely enraptured by the beautiful, straightforward, and powerful way the former Prime Minister of England is able to defend classical liberalism. In these series of clips you can see her topple smug socialists, destroy the fallacy of self-sufficient governments, and rally for the globalization of free trade. How anyone could be opposed to free [...]

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Politics Through Facebook
By: Barry Belmont

Whenever someone shows me a political debate they’ve had on their Facebook I can’t help feeling it goes a bit like this: Something like that at least…

View Comments Posted in Absurd, Political Philosophy
Lucretius, the Libertarian?
By: Barry Belmont

No doubt you have come across Lucretius in your Humanities classes, perhaps even being so lucky as to have read his On the Nature of Things. Within it you will see one of the greatest expositions of Epicurian philosophy, intricate poetry, and systemic doubt in authority in all of history. A perfect example of this [...]

View Comments Posted in Libertarianism, Political Philosophy, The State
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A Philosophy of Philosophy
By: Barry Belmont

Philosophy is but a useful shorthand logic for complex things. For instance, when we libertarians talk about “liberty” it’s not that we think there is an actual “thing” that exists in the real world that is “liberty.” By liberty we simply mean a collection of behaviors and actions that follow this, this, and this premise [...]

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So, Healthcare Reform Passed…
By: John Russell

Any proponent of freedom must accept that the individual owns themselves. Deviations from this premise only open itself to a belief that force over another person can somehow be justified. For those who are upset about the recent healthcare legislation that passed, one must also ask themselves if they are upset about many other social [...]

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I’m no hippie, but…
By: Barry Belmont
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Oh, Hookers.
By: Travis Hagen

In the comments Mary’s article ‘Oh, Nevada‘ there is an epic discussion about prostitution and the morality of legalizing something that leads to drug addiction, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. While I found no hard studies on these side effects of prostitution, let’s just assume them to be true. Clearly, it is impossible to support [...]

View Comments Posted in Libertarianism, Political Philosophy, Stupid Government
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Government is the Problem not the Solution
By: Barry Belmont

I have an inordinate respect for many scientists. I have read literally hundreds of books on science and it never ceases to amaze me the brilliant insights many scientists (or scientific journalists/writers) illuminate. One particularly interesting book I read recently was The Origin of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley. I had [...]

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“One way or another, land [will be stolen]“
By: John Russell

Perhaps the truncation of the quote provided above is somewhat unrepresentative of the words spoken by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, but nonetheless it represents the reality of the situation brewing over the controversial land acquisition by the federal government. According to this article by the Philadelphia Inquirer, it appears our government is issuing an ultimatum [...]

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Responsibility and the Unknowable
By: Barry Belmont

I have, for the past couple of days, held before my mind a constant conundrum that I cannot adequately answer for myself. I pose it here to see if anyone can elucidate the issue more than I can. If one is the voluntary citizen of a country (or a club or whatever) they agree to [...]

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