Comments on Colin Williams's Arguments Against Spooner

Colin Williams, "Contra Spooner," argues that Lysander Spooner is wrong about the state’s being the “instrument of robbery, slavery, and murder.” He begins by observing, accurately enough, that Spooner’s arguments are constructed of “pure philosophy” and thus require a reply in kind. It is puzzling, then, that Williams thinks to show Spooner wrong by a “survey of the culture of the ancient Mediterranean.” This survey produces the result that the ancient Greeks thought nothing of plunder and murdering people as long as they were in some other city. I do not find this defense of plunder and murder particularly compelling.

Volume 19, Number 3 (2005)