April 8, 2013 columns
Zwolinski argues that some of the results the non-aggression principle logically leads to mean we ought to question its universal application.
Many libertarians believe that the whole of their political philosophy can be summed up in a single, simple principle. This principlethe non-aggression principle or non-aggression axiom (hereafter NAP)holds that aggression against the person or property of others is always wrong, where aggression is defined narrowly in terms of the use or threat of physical violence.
From this principle, many libertarians believe, the rest of libertarianism can be deduced as a matter of mere logic. What is the proper libertarian stance on minimum wage laws? Aggression, and therefore wrong. What about anti-discrimination laws? Aggression, and therefore wrong. Public schools? Same answer. Public roads? Same answer. The libertarian armed with the NAP has little need for the close study of history, sociology, or empirical economics. With a little logic and a lot of faith in this basic axiom of morality, virtually any political problem can be neatly solved from the armchair.
On its face, the NAPs prohibition of aggression falls nicely in line with common sense. After all, who doesnt think its wrong to steal someone elses property, to club some innocent person over the head, or to force others to labor for ones own private benefit? And if its wrong for us to do these things as individuals, why would it be any less wrong for us to do it as a group as a club, a gang, ora state?
But the NAPs plausibility is superficial. It is, of course, common sense to think that aggression is a bad thing. But it is far from common sense to think that its badness is absolute, such that the wrongness of aggression always trumps any other possible consideration of justice or political morality. There is a vast difference between a strong but defeasible presumption against the justice of aggression, and an absolute, universal prohibition. As Bryan Caplan has said, if you cant think of counterexamples to the latter, youre not trying hard enough. But Im here to help.
In the remainder of this essay, I want to present six reasons why libertarians should reject the NAP. None of them are original to me. Each is logically independent of the others. Taken together, I think, they make a fairly overwhelming case.
Theres more to be said about each of these, of course. Libertarians havent written much about the issue of pollution. But they have been aware of the problem about fraud at least since James Child published his justly famous article in Ethics on the subject in 1994, and both Bryan Caplan and Stephan Kinsella have tried (unsatisfactorily, to my mind) to address it. Similarly, Roderick Long has some characteristically thoughtful and intelligent things to say about the issue of children and positive rights.
Libertarians are ingenious folk. And I have no doubt that, given sufficient time, they can think up a host of ways to tweak, tinker, and contextualize the NAP in a way that makes some progress in dealing with the problems I have raised in this essay. But there comes a point where adding another layer of epicycles to ones theory seems no longer to be the best way to proceed. There comes a point where what you need is not another refinement to the definition of aggression but a radical paradigm shift in which we put aside the idea that non-aggression is the sole, immovable center of the moral universe. Libertarianism needs its own Copernican Revolution.
Matt Zwolinski is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, and co-director ofUSDs Institute for Law and Philosophy. He has publishednumerous articles at the intersection of politics, law, economics, with a special focus on issues of exploitation and political libertarianism. He is the editor of Arguing About Political Philosophy (Routledge, 2009), and is currently writing two books: Exploitation, Capitalism, and the State and, with John Tomasi, Libertarianism: A Bleeding Heart History. The latter is under contract with Princeton University Press. Matt Zwolinski is the founder of and a regular contributor to the blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians.
Read the original here:
Non-Aggression - Libertarianism.org
- If Brevity is the Soul of Wit ... - November 7th, 2009 [November 7th, 2009]
- Gang Brutality Caught on Tape - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Kim Jong Tweet - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Fuck Marching - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Monopoly Money - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mexican Gang War: Both Sides are Cops - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Fruits of Democracy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- MSM Pwned by Amateurs - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- War on Drugs: Collateral Damage - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Goldman Sachs: Ruler of the Universe - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Sam Dodson Talks to MotorHome Diaries - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- When God and Government Mix - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mike Gogulski PWNS Social Security - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Stefan Molyneux Interviews Jan Helfeld - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Commander in Chief: Council on Foreign Relations - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Canadian Healthcare Extravaganza - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- My Reply to an Essay on China, the US, and Yu Wan Mei - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Iraq War: A Biblical Event - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Crazy Facts from GovernmentLand - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Remember 9-11 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Then Again... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Hillary Clinton Devestates Pakistan - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Jan Helfeld and Elliot Engel - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Report on attacks against Michael Jude Gogulski 5 September 2009 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- They Are Selling You - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Happy Guy Fawkes Day - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Emergency Aid to Seniors? No Way - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Public Option is the Decoy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Should Insider Trading be Illegal? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Reefer Non-Madness - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- U.S. Legalizes Medical Marijuana - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Fiddling While Rome Burns - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Massachusetts Should Lower, Not Raise, the Dropout Age - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- No Limits on Executive Compensation - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Execs Quit to Avoid Pay Limits - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Krugman on China and the Dollar - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Obama's Climate Speech at MIT - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Fed and Policy Uncertainty - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Civil Union versus Civil Marriage - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Medicare Shuns Seniors - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Financial Market Reform - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- All You Need to Know ... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- No Government Health Insurance - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Cap and Trade Will not Reduce Emissions - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Cartoon Commentary - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Did the Stimulus Work? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Letting the Sick Die on the Street - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Renewed Hope for Gridlock? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- An Opportunity for Libertarians? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Not-so-Temporary Stimulus - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Sausages in Financial Reform - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Dumb Cops, Dumb Laws, Unnecessary Victims - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Fighting Terrorism in Berkeley - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- School Lunch FAIL - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Insane Mortgage Policy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Comments Welcome - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Obamanomics: Growing the Pie or Dividing the Pie? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Right Meets Left on Criminal Justice - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Is Nuclear the Answer to Global Warming? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Franksgiving: Another Flawed Stimulus - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Dollars for Dishwashers - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The Politics of Cap and Trade - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A College for Cannabis - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- George Will, Medical Marijuana, and Legalization - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Bernanke on the Fed - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- A Debate About Mexico's Drug Wars - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Doublespeak - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Tobacco Prohibition, Bit by Bit - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The U.S. in the Middle East: A Prediction - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Gay Marriage or Civil Union: Would Less be More? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Whither the Estate Tax - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Late-Term Abortions in Nebraska - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Why Climate Negotations Are a Waste of Time - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- "Mild" Gun Control Laws - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Did the Iraq Surge Really Work? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Driver's Ed at Age 52 - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Ginnie Mae, Ticking Time Bomb - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Toddler Terrorism - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Policy Insight from David Letterman - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]