The Ethics of Liberty

Murray N. Rothbard

NYU Press, 2002 - Political Science - 308 pages

In recent years, libertarian impulses have increasingly influenced national and economic debates, from welfare reform to efforts to curtail affirmative action. Murray N. Rothbard's classic The Ethics of Liberty stands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position.
What distinguishes Rothbard's book is the manner in which it roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. An economist by profession, Rothbard here proves himself equally at home with philosophy. And while his conclusions are radical—that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state—his applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions.
The Ethics of Liberty authoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This edition is newly indexed and includes a new introduction that takes special note of the Robert Nozick-Rothbard controversies.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ewalrath - LibraryThing

This was my favorite of the books I read for my capitolo-anarchist symposium. Rothbard is considered very weak, almost a dandy of the field, but for a bleeding heart libertarian, he's the closest they get to me.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - ServusLibri - LibraryThing

The book is a collection of topical essays, organized or presented in five parts. The first three parts deliver Rothbard's views on natural law, on various topics or ethical issues related to society ...

Contents

• INTRODUCTION: xi
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: xlv
• PREFACE: xlvii
• INTRODUCTION NATURAL: 1
• Natural Law and Reason: 3
• Natural Law as Science: 9
• Natural Law versus Positive Law: 17
• Natural Law and Natural Rights: 21
• The Task of Political Philosophy: 25
• A THEORY OF LIBERTY: 27
• A Crusoe Social Philosophy: 29
• Voluntary Exchange: 35
• Ownership and Aggression: 45
• Property and Criminality: 51
• The Problem of Land Theft: 63
• Land Monopoly Past and Present: 69
• SelfDefense: 77
• Punishment and Proportionality: 85
• Children and Rights: 97
• Human Rights As Property Rights: 113
• Knowledge True and False: 121
• Bribery: 129
• The Boycott: 131
• Property Rights and the Theory of Contracts: 133
• Lifeboat Situations: 149
• The Rights of Animals: 155
• THE STATE VERSUS LIBERTY: 159
• The Nature of the State: 161
• The Inner Contradictions of the State: 175
• The Moral Status of Relations to the State: 183
• On Relations Between States: 189
• MODERN ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF LIBERTY: 199
• Toward a Theory of Strategy for Liberty: 257
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 275
• INDEX: 295

About the author

The author of numerous books, the late Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) was the S. J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Ethics of Liberty
• Author: Murray N. Rothbard
• Illustrated by: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• Contributor: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: NYU Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0814775594, 9780814775592
• Length: 308 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare