Reflections on Utilitarianism
Oct 19Sheldon Richman cites your humble correspondent on rule-utilitarianism and rule-egoism in his latest editorial. I’m not sure how far I agree with Sheldon’s suggestion that utilitarianism is “a product of the positivist mindset, which held that reason can’t judge ultimate values.” That’s certainly true of the kind of utilitarianism we find in Mises, Hazlitt, and [...]
More Spencer Nonsense, Part Deux
May 29Earlier this month I wrote a letter to the New York Times and posted it here. Then I discovered that the Times would only print letters that haven’t appeared previously, so I deleted the letter from my blog. But since they didn’t print it anyway, here it is again: To the Editor: Patricia Cohen’s May [...]
More Spencer Nonsense
May 07A recent New York Times article (conical hat tip to Sheldon Richman) repeated the usual guff about Herbert Spencer. I just sent in the following response: [I just saw that the NYT won't publish letters previously published, so check back here later.] [Addendum: Okay it’s later.]
Herbert Spencer, Labortarian
Apr 10Non-leftist libertarians tend to have a negative view of labour unions and workers’ cooperatives. Non-libertarian leftists tend to have a negative view of Herbert Spencer. As a possible corrective to both attitudes, I thought I’d reproduce some especially interesting passages from Spencer. I don’t claim that either group should necessarily be satisfied with everything Spencer [...]
Against Anarchist Apartheid
Apr 01Consider the following two lists of names: Group 1 Group 2 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Josiah Warren Stephen Pearl Andrews Ezra Heywood Anselme Bellegarrigue Lysander Spooner Benjamin Tucker Francis D. Tandy John Henry Mackay Voltairine de Cleyre (early) Franz Oppenheimer Gustave de Molinari Herbert Spencer (early) Auberon Herbert Wordsworth Donisthorpe Rose Wilder Lane Robert LeFevre Murray Rothbard [...]
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