About this Item
"First published in the United States of America in 1982 by Humanities Press, Inc." Will close its own text block. Modest rub to corners. No dust jacket -- apparently issued without jacket. Dated March 1982 -- the year of publication -- warmly inscribed to Colin Hunter, "a dedicated and intelligent libertarian," and signed to the free front endpaper "Murray Rothbard." Hunter, who was active with Rothbard and Bill Evers on the Central Committee of the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus from about 1978-1983, financed Eric Garris & Justin Raimondo in the launch of their Web venture Antiwar-(dot)-com in 1995, and subsequently co-founded the Silicon Valley microprocessor start-up Transmeta, which took in a reported $273 million with its IPO in the year 2000. Rothbard (1926-1995) was the S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, from 1986. He developed and extended the Austrian economics of Ludwig von Mises, in whose seminar he was a main participant for many years. He established himself as the principal Austrian theorist in the latter half of the twentieth century, applying Austrian analysis to such historical topics as the Great Depression and the history of American banking. Following on Mises' demonstration that a society without private property degenerates into economic chaos, Rothbard here shows that every interference with property represents a violent and unethical invasion that diminishes liberty and prosperity. First published in 1982, The Ethics of Liberty is "a masterpiece of argumentation, and shockingly radical in its conclusions," note the editors at the Mises Institute. "Rothbard says that the very existence of the state -- the entity with a monopoly privilege to invade private property -- is contrary to the ethics of liberty. A society without a state is not only viable; it is the only one consistent with natural rights." In "one area he maintained that Mises was mistaken," writes biographer David Gordon. "Mises contended that ethical judgments were subjective: ultimate ends are not subject to rational assessment. Rothbard dissented, maintaining that an objective ethics could be founded on the requirements of human nature. His approach, based on his study of Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, is presented in 'The Ethics of Liberty' ' . . . in which Rothbard concludes "Taxation is theft, purely and simply even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. . . . " Rothbard associate Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who wrote the introduction to later editions, described "The Ethics of Liberty" as Rothbard's second magnum opus, after "Man, Economy, and State" (1962). 268 pp. This inscribed and signed association copy here reduced from $6,000. Seller Inventory # 004195
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Ethics of Liberty (SIGNED TO COLIN ...
Publisher: Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.
Publication Date: 1982
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition
About this title
In recent years, libertarian impulses have increasingly influenced national and economic debates, from welfare reform to efforts to curtail affirmative action. Murray N. Rothbard's classic The Ethics of Liberty stands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position.
What distinguishes Rothbard's book is the manner in which it roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. An economist by profession, Rothbard here proves himself equally at home with philosophy. And while his conclusions are radical?that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state?his applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions.
The Ethics of Liberty authoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This edition is newly indexed and includes a new introduction that takes special note of the Robert Nozick-Rothbard controversies.
The author of numerous books, the late Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) was the S. J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Academic Vice President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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