Category: Philosophy

When it comes to political debates, one can either argue on the framework level or the empirical level. On the framework level, discussions revolve around the basic principles that motivate just political systems. For instance, we might ask whether equal opportunity is all that is necessary for an economic system to be just. The empirical… Continue reading Liberal equality of opportunity according to Rawls

Bryan Caplan is out today with a weird piece about social contract theory. I remember Princeton’s Honor Code whenever I hear someone defend social contract theory. Admittedly, there are many version of social contract theory; maybe yours is reasonable. But lots social contractarians – especially Hobbes and his numerous heirs – unreasonably try to ground… Continue reading Why does everyone misunderstand social contract theory?

One of the fundamental splits between libertarians and left-liberals is the two groups’ understanding of voluntariness. For libertarians, voluntariness is a purely procedural notion. Any agreement made without active force or fraud counts as voluntary, regardless of what else obtains about the agreement. If you are on the verge of starvation and you sign an… Continue reading Income taxes are voluntary

James Kwak has an article in The Atlantic today about the ideological motivations of the modern-day Republican party. Specifically, he tries to explain why Republicans — the pre-eminent haters of taxation — often suggest raising taxes on the very poor. Kwak suggests, Republicans are believers in just deserts: The other, even-more-disturbing explanation, is that Republicans… Continue reading Desert theory and taxing the poor

As far as I can tell, most libertarians these days do not rely upon the labor theory of property anymore. It is kind of a silly doctrine to begin with, and Marx picked it up and ran with it, using it to show that all profit is theft. So these days, arguments for absolute property… Continue reading Fun with the labor theory of property