Sixty-year old Jan Davis plunged to her death because her borrowed parachute didn’t open during a jump she made from El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, on October 22. Her death immediately sparked a storm of controversy concerning how much risk people should be permitted to undertake in a free society. When adventurers want to indulge their
After a federal district judge recently ordered the prohibition of all new oil drilling along the California coast, an anti-drilling spokesperson declared the ruling “a victory for the California coast.” This is an interesting, if terribly confusing, notion. There was no fight between the California coast and anyone, not even between the coast and
In his recent work, Tyranny and Legitimacy, James Fishkin advances an argument against Roben Nozick’s theory of, what Fishkin calls, “absolute rights” by trying to demonstrate that such a theory would legitimate tyranny. Volume 6, Number 3 (1982) Machan, Tibor. “Fishkin on Nozick’s Absolute Rights.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 6, No. 3
If there is one thing that divides people most on matters of politics, it concerns loyalty to the principle of private property rights. You can test this easily enough. Ask someone to tell you whether he or she thinks a person has exclusive authority over that which he or she owns. Those who say yes will find the scope of governmental authority in
Here is my dilemma. I, like millions of others, detest spam. I have three functioning email addresses and the two main ones receive nearly 80% spam. Every time I log on (which I do about seven times daily), I first delete about eight of these nearly useless posts, read one or two that are of some interest, and go on to those that are actually
Classical liberals and libertarians, especially those who admire the works of the famous legal theorists and economist F.A. Hayek, are fond of pointing out that a free society requires the rule of law. Others, critical of this political tradition, note, however, that laws rule most societies, many of them quite tyrannical, so the rule of law has
A los liberales clásicos y libertarios, especialmente a los que admiran las obras del famoso teórico de la ley y economista F. A. Hayek, les gusta señalar que una sociedad libre requiere el imperio de la ley. Otros, críticos con esta tradición política, señalan, sin embargo, que las leyes gobiernan la mayoría de las sociedades, muchas de ellas
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.