Illiberal Libertarians: Why Libertarianism is Not a Liberal View, and a Good Thing Too; Reply to Samuel Freeman

Libertarianism has been widely misunderstood, and the present essay under review is no exception. Libertarianism is a political philosophy, not a philosophy of life. It essentially asks but one single solitary question, and gives one single, solitary answer. The question: under what conditions is the use of force or violence legally justified? And the answer: only in response (defense against, retaliation against, punishment of) to the prior use of force or violence against a person or his legitimately owned property. It shall be the purpose of the present paper to defend this libertarian philosophy of nonaggression against Freeman’s attacks and correct his misconceptions of it.

Volume 22, Number 1 (2011)