Category:Philosophers
Most social scientists can’t predict the future. But this philosopher did.
July 20, 2017 | Post
How a “nasty little man” predicted the 2nd French Revolution and the Cold War.
The king is dead, long live chaos! Why Hobbes was wrong and Burke was right.
May 30, 2017 | Post
Early liberal theorists gave French revolutionaries the tools to overthrow oppressive kings, but also to unleash chaos and violence.
Happy birthday to René Descartes, father of methodological skepticism
March 31, 2017 | Post
Once he entered the intellectual fray, things would never be the same.
Elinor Ostrom, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and learning to see the women who have shaped the world
March 31, 2017 | Post
Well-behaved women seldom make history, but they should.
Mary Wollstonecraft: Libertarian Feminist
March 21, 2017 | Post
Almost two centuries before the women’s lib movement and a full century before the suffragettes, not all women were quiet subordinates to men. In this 1996 essay, historian Jim Powell provides us with an illuminating account of the brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft, an 18th-century author and philosopher who never minced her words in defense of equal […]
3 women who inspired the modern libertarian movement
March 12, 2017 | Post
Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand together comprise the “founding mothers” of modern libertarianism.
Rawls the Irrelevant
February 21, 2017 | Post
My thesis is simple: If you want to square libertarianism with social justice, John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice is probably not a book you should reach for.
A (Revised) Theory of Justice
February 21, 2017 | Post
Although Rawls is part of the liberal tradition, he is arguably the pinnacle of the “high” liberal tradition, which is a far cry from the “classical” side I’m more comfortable with.
Was Jeremy Bentham a Classical Liberal at heart?
February 15, 2017 | Post
Jeremy Bentham was born on Feb. 15th, 1748, in Spitalfields, England. One of the main early advocates of utilitarianism — the ethical view that, roughly, an act is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and wrong insofar as it does not — he is best known for his view that “it is the greatest happiness […]
Immanuel Kant: Philosopher of Freedom
February 2, 2017 | Post
Kant was self-consciously an Enlightenment liberal who believed in limited government and maximum freedom.
Crony-in-Chief: Donald Trump epitomizes Ayn Rand’s “Aristocracy of Pull.”
February 2, 2017 | Post
A president who truly understood Rand’s philosophy would not be cozying up to Putin, bullying companies to keep manufacturing plants in the United States, or promising “insurance for everybody.”
Liberalism reconstructed for a world divided
December 31, 2016 | Post
So 2016 is limping to an end with an assassination of an ambassador, another “inspired” attack on innocents at a Christmas market, and the formal election of a master crony-capitalist to the office of the presidency of the United States.
Schools of thought in classical liberalism
November 23, 2016 | Post
Classical liberals all agree that government should be limited, but they disagree about how they get to that conclusion.
Getting Good Results vs Doing the Right Thing
November 17, 2016 | Post
Would you tell a lie to protect someone from harm?
Here are 7 lesser-known classical liberal thinkers for your World Philosophy Day
November 17, 2016 | Post
Here are seven criminally underrated philosophers to celebrate this World Philosophy Day.
Yet another comically bad caricature of libertarianism
October 15, 2016 | Post
Another day, another hilariously awful straw man argument against libertarianism.
Did the Ancient Greeks Believe in Freedom?
October 3, 2016 | Post
To answer this question we must first learn the distinction between contemporary conceptions of freedom and “The Freedom of the Ancients.”
John Locke's Top 5 Radical Political Ideas
August 29, 2016 | Post
John Locke’s most important ideas, for your list-reading pleasure.
The Semester Is Over, But Your Intellectual Journey Doesn’t Have to Stop
June 21, 2016 | Post
School’s out and summer is here, and it’s a great opportunity to keep learning outside the classroom. To that end, Learn Liberty is excited to bring you #HayekandChill, five video series about relevant topics on students’ minds. Here’s a quick overview of the subjects we’ll be covering. Feel the Bern – Election Issues In summer […]
4 Things You Probably Never Knew About John Stuart Mill
May 20, 2016 | Post
John Stuart Mill was born exactly 210 years ago (May 21, 1806), and he’s still remembered as one of the most foundational classical liberal philosophers and political economists to this day. If you’ve studied Mill at all in your college classes, you probably remember him for his development of utilitarian thought—the idea that anything we […]
March Madness: Liberty Edition
March 25, 2016 | Post
Liberty lovers have another bracket to fill out and obsess over this March. The Institute for Humane Studies is hosting its own version of March Madness, featuring the top thinkers of the liberty movement. The competitors represent four quadrants of liberty thought: Nobel Prize winners, classical thinkers, Austrian Economists, and radical thinkers. Vote for your […]
Ayn Rand Seminar at ISFLC
February 2, 2016 | Post
If you’re interested in Ayn Rand’s writing and will be attending the International Students for Liberty Conference, come a day early and learn about Ayn Rand’s unique and integrated moral-philosophical argument and its connection to a free society. The seminar will examine three of her essays, “The Objectivist Ethics,” “Man’s Rights,” and “What Is Capitalism” […]
Do You Want to Live in the World of Atlas Shrugged?
February 2, 2016 | Post
Author Ayn Rand is one of the most divisive thinkers of the modern era, but does her work hint at themes that are common to most if not all of us? In honor of her birthday, take a moment to reflect on whether or not you would want to live in the world Rand created […]
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Feminism – A New Perspective
December 7, 2015 | Post
From gaining the rights to vote and to own property to contemporary issues like wage gaps and slut shaming, feminism has been a topic of debate for decades. Some argue that the best way to give women equal rights and opportunities is to enact government policies which mandate the equal treatment of women, or affirmative […]