Spooner, Captain Phillips, Further Fallacies

Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. This is…

Fallacy Again, The Constitution, The State and War

Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. In this…

Re: Criminal Disarmament

Parrish, I’m curious if there’s anything in libertarian punishment theory that would justify a victim, or victim’s agent, using force to keep her assailant disarmed. Off the cuff, if the crime is “gun disarmament,” then wouldn’t both estoppel and proportionality justify forcible gun disarmament of the criminal? That seems compatible with libertarian punishment theory. Another…

Why Don’t You Steal?

Editor’s Pick. Written by Wendy McElroy. As a starting point, I assume readers do not engage in the initiation of force, including theft. You may refrain from doing so because of a moral code or from a respect for rights. But, at least for me, the admonition not to steal isn’t written in stone. I…

Re: Self-Interest II

Nobody asked but … Voluntaryists and libertarians put a value on being left in peace. This necessarily includes acceptance of the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP) and of all responsibilities implied thereby. The assumption of this responsibility is the thing a libertarian has chosen to owe to others. The anti-libertarian believes that the libertarian will not observe…

Re: Self-Interest

Nobody asked but …I believe that libertarians put a value on being left alone. This necessarily includes self-ownership and self-determination and self-recognition of all responsibilities assumed.  The assumption of responsibility is the thing a libertarian has chosen to owe to others. The anti-libertarian believes that the libertarian will evade those responsibilities.  But then the anti-libertarian…