Re: Ethics and Politics

From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Tue Sep 16 1997 - 23:01:45 MDT


At 06:59 PM 9/16/97 -0700, Michael M. Butler wrote:
>John Stuart Mill never (to my knowledge) called himself a Libertarian. The
>term was used exclusively in a theological context until sometime in the
>mid-to-late nineteenth century.

Again, take a close look at JS Mill's _On Liberty_.

>We can't go ask Mill whether he'd have agreed with, say, Harry Browne as a
>Presidential candidate.

Perhaps not, but his committment to individual liberty as a means towards
utility is indubitable.

>"Wrong"? I intend to work on what they left out. I don't have time to work
>on "Why they are wrong", any more than any other good
>experimentalist-theoretician.

My implicit point was that if they are NOT wrong, then my premises are
correct, and libertarianism is ethical.

>One word of advice: if you stand behind a wall of great thinkers, it
>decreases your chance of becoming a good one yourself.

True... But now is not the time to unleash my ethics, politics and
economics thesis on the world. Give me a few years! :)

        -SAVE THE WHALES-
     -COLLECT THE WHOLE SET-



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