An Introduction to Libertarianism

[magus341]

Libertarians seem bizarre and heartless to outsiders. It has been decried as a infantile and underdeveloped political philosophy, but it traces its origins back at least 300 years. But what are classical liberalism or libertarianism's foundations of thought?

In a previous article, I outlined 5 foundations of moral judgements: Harm/Care, Fairness

Comments

[magus341]

I agree re: environmentalism. Handling externalities is perhaps the weakest aspect of libertarianism. It's hard to be a libertarian and also an environmentalist - except through private action. For example you could buy land and reserve it for wildlife. Property rights are a bit underrated by environmentalists. Chickens are not threatened by extinction, but elephants are. The second weakest position libertarians hold IMHO is welfare. Incentives matter and capitalism really does do an amazing job of providing 95% of people with basic necessities. I think the best way to deal with the last 5% is redistributive taxation, which really shouldn't require much more than maybe a 5% sales tax to fund

[magus341]

I think the lack of ability of most political groups to come to terms with holistic environmental policy is a big part of the appeal of dedicated Green Parties in many countries.

I agree about exposure. One of my closest friends in high school came out senior year. I had known him to be a good and reasonable person, so when he came out that pretty much cemented my default idea of gay people as positive. Then there was Tommy and his friends in college, and later Scott and now you. I don't think anyone could have as many positive experiences with GLBT people as I have any not be sympathetic to their plight.

"My mind does not change as easily as I should like."
I don't think anyone's does, except perhaps my own. I achieved that not by changing my mind more easily, but by convincing myself it should stay relatively stable. I'm mostly Baysian, so I don't think additional data should chance the likely truth very much on the margin. I do believe in continually seeking out new data though.