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117-465: Patri Friedman (born July 29, 1976) is an American libertarian , anarcho-capitalist , and theorist of political economy . He founded The Seasteading Institute , a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies. Named after family friend Patri Pugliese , Friedman grew up in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania , and is a graduate of Upper Merion Area High School , class of 1994, where he went by

234-474: A human being with the status and rights attributed to personhood . Some supporters of the NAP argue this occurs at the moment of conception while others argue that since the fetus lacks sentience until a certain stage of development, it does not qualify as a human being and may be considered property of the mother. On the other hand, opponents of abortion state that sentience is not a qualifying factor. They refer to

351-499: A minimal state on the grounds that it was an inevitable phenomenon which could arise without violating individual rights . According to common United States meanings of conservative and liberal , libertarianism in the United States has been described as conservative on economic issues ( economic liberalism and fiscal conservatism ) and liberal on personal freedom ( civil libertarianism and cultural liberalism ). It

468-508: A sufficiently large amount of compensation to get away with murder. They point out that local law may vary from proportional compensation to capital punishment to no compensation at all. Other critics state that the NAP is unethical because it does not provide for the violent prohibition of, and thereby supposedly legitimizes, several forms of aggression that do not involve intrusion on property rights such as verbal sexual harassment , defamation , boycotting , noninvasive striking etc. If

585-488: A 1948 interview with Donald H. Kirkley for the Library of Congress , H. L. Mencken , a writer who influenced many libertarians, puts an ethical limit on the freedom of speech: I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I do not think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got

702-537: A boundary into someone's property or person can constitute aggression. In order to avoid having mere existence violate the non-aggression principle, Rothbard, Nozick, and others proposed less strict positions. Nozick suggested that boundary-crossing is permissible up to a certain range as long as it is socially beneficial and compensation is paid for it. Rothbard suggested that a causal connection of objective harm needs to be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt before prohibiting pollution. These approaches appear to contradict

819-448: A conception of personal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state. People described as being left-libertarian or right-libertarian generally tend to call themselves simply libertarians and refer to their philosophy as libertarianism. As a result, some political scientists and writers classify the forms of libertarianism into two or more groups to distinguish libertarian views on

936-405: A defensive response in a physical manner. Those threats would then constitute a legitimate limit to permissible action. Critics argue it is not possible to uphold NAP when protecting the environment as most pollution can never be traced back to the party that caused it. They therefore claim that only general broad government regulations will be able to protect the environment. Supporters cite

1053-567: A fair hearing". Neo-libertarianism has its roots at least as far back as 1980 when it was first described by the American philosopher James Sterba of the University of Notre Dame . Sterba observed that libertarianism advocates for a government that does no more than protection against force, fraud, theft, enforcement of contracts and other so-called negative liberties as contrasted with positive liberties by Isaiah Berlin . Sterba contrasted this with

1170-441: A fetus has no right to life inside the womb because it is not an "independently existing, biologically formed organism, let alone a person". Pro-choice libertarian Murray Rothbard held the same stance, maintaining that abortion is justified at any time during pregnancy if the fetus is no longer welcome inside its mother. Similarly, other pro-choice supporters base their argument on criminal trespass. In that case, they claim that

1287-487: A half-million-dollar donation from venture capitalist Peter Thiel . The institute's mission is "to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems". This was initially a part-time project – one day a week while working as a Google engineer the rest of the time – but Friedman left Google on July 29, 2008, to spend more time on seasteading . He and partner Wayne C. Gramlich hoped to float

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1404-404: A harm), or none are (because they are). And neither of these seems sensible. Some supporters argue that no one initiates force if their only option for self-defense is to use force against a greater number of people as long as they were not responsible for being in the position they are in. Murray Rothbard 's and Walter Block 's formulations of NAP avoid these objections by either specifying that

1521-562: A libertarian philosophical treatise titled Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness which criticized ideas of human rights and of society by contract based on vague promises. He took liberalism to its logical anarchic conclusion by rejecting all political institutions, law, government and apparatus of coercion as well as all political protest and insurrection. Instead of institutionalized justice, Godwin proposed that people influence one another to moral goodness through informal reasoned persuasion, including in

1638-448: A man's right and the morality or immorality of his exercise of that right. We will contend that it is a man's right to do whatever he wishes with his person; it is his right not to be molested or interfered with by violence from exercising that right. But what may be the moral or immoral ways of exercising that right is a question of personal ethics rather than of political philosophy—which is concerned solely with matters of right, and of

1755-424: A night-watchman state, but instead requires sufficient government to provide each person in society with the relatively high minimum of liberty that persons using Rawls ' decision procedure would select. The political program actually justified by an ideal of negative liberty I shall call Neo-Libertarianism ." Libertarian populism combines libertarian and populist politics. According to Jesse Walker , writing in

1872-417: A right to say and believe anything I please, but I have not got a right to press it on anybody else. [...] Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors. Supporters also consider physical threats of imminent physical violence (e.g. pointing a firearm at innocent people, or stocking up nuclear weapons that cannot be used discriminately against specific individual aggressors) sufficient justification for

1989-561: A short piece critiquing a poem by " the author of Gebir " and has since been used politically. The use of the term libertarian to describe a new set of political positions has been traced to the French cognate libertaire , coined in a letter French libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque wrote to mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1857. Déjacque also used the term for his anarchist publication Le Libertaire, Journal du mouvement social ( Libertarian: Journal of Social Movement ) which

2106-641: A state monopoly of law enforcement does not necessarily make NAP present throughout society as corruption and corporatism , as well as lobby group clientelism in democracies , favor only certain people or organizations. Anarcho-capitalists aligned with the Rothbardian philosophy generally contend that the state violates the non-aggression principle by its very nature because, it is argued, governments necessarily use force against those who have not stolen private property , vandalized private property , assaulted anyone , or committed fraud . Some proponents of

2223-576: A term, libertarian or economic libertarian has the most everyday acceptance to describe a member of the movement, with the latter term being based on both the ideology's importance of economics and its distinction from libertarians of the New Left. While both historical and contemporary libertarianism share general antipathy towards power by government authority, the latter exempts power wielded through free-market capitalism . Historically, libertarians, including Herbert Spencer and Max Stirner , supported

2340-493: A victim thus provoked would turn to physical violence, they would be labeled an aggressor according to the NAP. However, supporters of the NAP state that boycotting and defamation both constitute freedoms of speech and that boycotting, noninvasive striking and noninvasive discrimination all constitute freedoms of association and that both freedoms of association and of speech are nonaggressive. Supporters also point out that prohibiting physical retaliation against an action

2457-431: Is also a prominent idea in anarcho-capitalism , voluntaryism , and minarchism . The principle has been derived through various philosophical approaches, including: Both libertarian supporters and opponents of abortion rights justify their position on NAP grounds. One question to determine whether or not abortion is consistent with the NAP is at what stage of development a fertilized human egg cell can be considered

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2574-594: Is also often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism . Although libertarianism originated as a form of anarchist or left-wing politics , the development in the mid-20th century of modern libertarianism in the United States resulted in libertarianism's being commonly associated with right-wing politics , as well as viewed by many as neither left- nor right-wing, but an independent pro-freedom and anti-authoritarian philosophy. It also resulted in several authors and political scientists using two or more categorizations to distinguish libertarian views on

2691-464: Is backed by Peter Thiel . Most of the cities will be aimed at foreign businesses seeking friendlier tax treatment. In 2000, Card Player Magazine suggested Patri Friedman might become a world champion. His winnings were as follows: Patri is the grandson of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and economist Rose Friedman and son of economist and physicist David D. Friedman . He has two children by his first wife. As of February 10, 2018, he

2808-437: Is closely associated with, to "safeguard" and maintain individualism. Libertarians argue that some forms of order within society emerge spontaneously from the actions of many different individuals acting independently from one another without any central planning . Proposed examples of systems that evolved through spontaneous order or self-organization include the evolution of life on Earth , language , crystal structure ,

2925-438: Is compatible with both retributivism and a utilitarian degree of deterrence while consistently maintaining NAP in a society. They extend their argument to all public goods and services traditionally funded through taxation, like security offered by dikes. Supporters of the NAP often appeal to it in order to argue for the immorality of theft , vandalism , sexual assault , assault , and fraud . Compared to nonviolence ,

3042-434: Is diminished by being automatically enrolled in the plan, when they merely have to check a box to opt out." Nudge is considered an important piece of literature in behavioral economics . Neo-libertarianism combines "the libertarian's moral commitment to negative liberty with a procedure that selects principles for restricting liberty on the basis of a unanimous agreement in which everyone's particular interests receive

3159-433: Is divided over the use of conservatism as an alternative. Those who seek both economic and social liberty would be known as liberals , but that term developed associations opposite of the limited government , low-taxation, minimal state advocated by the movement. Name variants of the free-market revival movement include classical liberalism , economic liberalism , free-market liberalism and neoliberalism . As

3276-434: Is generally wrong, is it really so obvious that the relatively minor aggression involved in these examples is wrong, given the tremendous benefit it produces?" Zwolinski also notes that the NAP is incompatible with any practice that produces any pollution, because pollution encroaches on the property rights of others. Therefore, the NAP prohibits both driving and starting fires. Citing David D. Friedman , Zwolinski notes that

3393-603: Is in line with the NAP include nuclear weapons proliferation , human trafficking and immigration . Randian author Ronald Merill states that use of force is subjective, saying: "There's no objective basis for controlling the use of force. Your belief that you're using force to protect yourself is just an opinion; what if it is my opinion that you are violating my rights?" Prominent libertarian thinkers such as Murray Rothbard considered pollution an act of aggression, mostly focusing on air pollution , though in absolute terms light pollution , sound, and anything that crosses

3510-611: Is in terms of the logical implications of these founding axioms". Although several modern American libertarians reject the political spectrum , especially the left–right political spectrum , several strands of libertarianism in the United States and right-libertarianism have been described as being right-wing, New Right or radical right and reactionary . While some American libertarians such as Walter Block , Harry Browne , Tibor Machan , Justin Raimondo , Leonard Read and Murray Rothbard deny any association with either

3627-525: Is married to Brit Benjamin with whom he has one child. Patri and Brit are self-described transhumanists and rationalists , and they have arranged to be cryonically preserved after their legal death. Libertarian Libertarianism (from French : libertaire , itself from the Latin : libertas , lit.   'freedom') is a political philosophy that holds freedom as its primary value. Many libertarians conceive of freedom in accord with

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3744-401: Is not aggression, or if it is, it is only aggression in a trivial technical sense. However, aiming at the same property with a gigawatt laser is certainly aggression by any reasonable definition. Yet both flashlight and laser shine photons onto the property, so there must be some cutoff point of how many photons one is permitted to shine upon a property before it is considered aggression. However,

3861-423: Is not itself condonement of said action, and that generally there are other, nonphysical means by which one can combat social ills (e.g., discrimination) that do not violate the NAP. Some supporters also state that while most of the time individuals choose voluntarily to engage in situations that may cause some degree of mental battering, this mental battering begins to constitute unauthorized physical overload of

3978-493: Is not likely because of the very high cost, in lives and economically, of war. They claim that war drains those involved and leaves non-combatant parties as the most powerful, economically and militarily, ready to take over. Therefore, anarcho-capitalists claim that in practice, and in more advanced societies with large institutions that have a responsibility to protect their vested interests, disputes are most likely to be settled peacefully. Anarcho-capitalists also point out that

4095-554: Is now the most popular conception of libertarianism. Commonly referred to as a continuation or radicalization of classical liberalism , the most important of these early philosophers and economists was Robert Nozick . While left-libertarians advocate for social freedom, right-libertarians also value social institutions that support capitalist conditions. They reject institutions that oppose this framework, arguing that such interventions unnecessarily coerce individuals and violate their economic freedom. Anarcho-capitalists seek

4212-411: Is permitted to enter or remain on their premises, legitimate property owners may also impose limitation on speech. The owner of a theatre wishing to avoid a stampede may prohibit those on her property from calling 'fire!' without just cause. However, the owner of a bank may not prohibit anyone from urging the general public to a bank run , except insofar as this occurs on the property of said owner. In

4329-583: Is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." According to American historian Bernard Bailyn , during and after the American Revolution , "the major themes of eighteenth-century libertarianism were brought to realization" in constitutions , bills of rights , and limits on legislative and executive powers, including limits on starting wars. According to Murray Rothbard , the libertarian creed emerged from

4446-528: Is the common meaning of the word libertarianism in the U.S. This form is often named liberalism elsewhere such as in Europe, where liberalism has a different common meaning than in the United States. In some academic circles, this form is called right-libertarianism as a complement to left-libertarianism , with acceptance of capitalism or the private ownership of land as being the distinguishing feature. Elements of libertarianism can be traced back to

4563-464: Is to protect personal and property rights; that people may dissolve governments that do not do so; and that representative government is the best form to protect rights. The United States Declaration of Independence was inspired by Locke in its statement: "[T]o secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it

4680-413: Is true that the word "liberal" once described persons who respected the individual and feared the use of mass compulsions. But the leftists have now corrupted that once-proud term to identify themselves and their program of more government ownership of property and more controls over persons. As a result, those of us who believe in freedom must explain that when we call ourselves liberals, we mean liberals in

4797-452: Is understood as forceful interference and property, and under which conditions it applies. The NAP has been criticized as circular reasoning and a rhetorical obfuscation of the coercive nature of right-libertarian property law enforcement because the principle redefines aggression in their own terms. Critics argue that the non-aggression principle is not ethical because it opposes the initiation of force even when they would consider

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4914-474: The 2021 Chilean presidential election with the Apruebo Dignidad coalition. In November 2023, economist and television commentator Javier Milei was elected as the world's first self-identified Libertarian head of state after winning an upset landslide in that year's general election as the leader of the libertarian La Libertad Avanza coalition. The first recorded use of the term libertarian

5031-739: The Bolsheviks in both the February and October 1917 revolutions. However, Bolsheviks in central Russia quickly began to imprison or drive underground the libertarian anarchists. Many fled to Ukraine. After the anarchist Makhnovshchina helped stave off the White movement during the Russian Civil War , the Bolsheviks turned on the Makkhnovists and contributed to the schism between the anarcho-syndicalists and

5148-743: The Cato Institute 's David Boaz includes passages from the Tao Te Ching in his 1997 book The Libertarian Reader and noted in an article for the Encyclopædia Britannica that Laozi advocated for rulers to "do nothing" because "without law or compulsion, men would dwell in harmony". Libertarianism was influenced by debates within Scholasticism regarding private property and slavery . Scholastic thinkers, including Thomas Aquinas , Francisco de Vitoria , and Bartolomé de Las Casas , argued for

5265-450: The Internet , Misplaced Pages , workers' councils , Horizontalidad , and a free market economy . What some academics call right-libertarianism is more often simply called "libertarianism" by its adherents. Based on the works of European writers like John Locke , Frederic Bastiat , Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises , it developed in the United States in the mid-20th century, and

5382-559: The Libertarian Party , of the United States, libertarianism is the advocacy of either anarchy, or government that is funded voluntarily and limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), "What it means to be a 'libertarian' in a political sense is a contentious issue, especially among libertarians themselves." Nevertheless, all libertarians begin with

5499-483: The Non-Aggression Principle , according to which each individual has the right to live as they choose, so long as it does not involve violating the rights of others by initiating force or fraud against them. Libertarians advocate for the expansion of individual autonomy and political self-determination , emphasizing the principles of equality before the law and the protection of civil rights , including

5616-543: The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Gruppo Comunista Anarchico di Firenze held that during the early twentieth century, the terms libertarian communism and anarchist communism became synonymous within the international anarchist movement as a result of the close connection they had in Spain ( anarchism in Spain ), with libertarian communism becoming the prevalent term. Libertarian socialism reached its apex of popularity with

5733-517: The Spanish Revolution of 1936 , during which libertarian socialists led "the largest and most successful revolution against capitalism to ever take place in any industrial economy". During the revolution, the means of production were brought under workers' control and worker cooperatives formed the basis for the new economy. According to Gaston Leval , the CNT established an agrarian federation in

5850-614: The Steiner–Vallentyne school . Some variants of libertarianism, such as anarcho-capitalism, have been labeled as far-right or radical right by some scholars. Those sometimes called "right-libertarians", usually by leftists or by other libertarians with more left-leaning ideologies, often reject the label due to its association with conservatism and right-wing politics and simply describe themselves as libertarians . However, some, particularly those who describe themselves as paleo-libertarians , agree with their placement on

5967-513: The age of consent for children, intervention counseling (i.e. for addicted persons, or in case of domestic violence), involuntary commitment and involuntary treatment with regards to mental illness , medical assistance (i.e. prolonged life support vs euthanasia in general and for the senile or comatose in particular), human organ trade , state paternalism (including economic interventionism ) and foreign intervention by states. Other discussion topics on whether intervention

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6084-478: The animal rights discussion and point out the argument from marginal cases that concludes the NAP also applies to non-sentient (i.e. mentally handicapped) humans. Another question is whether an unwelcome fetus should be considered to be an unauthorized trespasser in its mother's body. The non-aggression principle does not protect trespassers from the owners of the property on which they are trespassing. Objectivist philosopher Leonard Peikoff has argued that

6201-612: The means of production , or else to restrict their purview or effects to usufruct property norms, in favor of common or cooperative ownership and management , viewing private property in the means of production as a barrier to freedom and liberty. In the mid-20th century, American proponents of anarcho-capitalism and minarchism began using the term libertarian . Minarchists advocate for night-watchman states which maintain only those functions of government necessary to safeguard natural rights, understood in terms of self-ownership or autonomy, while anarcho-capitalists advocate for

6318-513: The " sectarian " libertarian socialists for the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War . These charges have been disputed by contemporary libertarian socialists, such as Robin Hahnel and Noam Chomsky, who have accused such claims of lacking substantial evidence. Non-Aggression Principle The Non-Aggression Principle is considered by some to be a defining principle of libertarianism and

6435-576: The 18th century and Age of Enlightenment , liberal ideas flourished in Europe and North America. Libertarians of various schools were influenced by liberal ideas. For philosopher Roderick T. Long, libertarians "share a common—or at least an overlapping—intellectual ancestry. [Libertarians] [...] claim the seventeenth century English Levellers and the eighteenth century French Encyclopedists among their ideological forebears; and [...] usually share an admiration for Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine ." John Locke greatly influenced both libertarianism and

6552-405: The 19th century and to a liberal version that developed in the United States that is avowedly pro- capitalist . According to polls, approximately one in four Americans self-identify as libertarian . While most members of this group are not necessarily ideologically driven, the term libertarian is commonly used to describe the form of libertarianism widely practiced in the United States and

6669-627: The Communists. With the rise of fascism in Europe between the 1920s and the 1930s, anarchists began to fight fascists in Italy, in France during the February 1934 riots and in Spain where the CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo) boycott of elections led to a right-wing victory and its later participation in voting in 1936 helped bring the popular front back to power. This led to a ruling class attempted coup and

6786-574: The Levante that encompassed 78% of Spain's most arable land . The regional federation was populated by 1,650,000 people, 40% of whom lived on the region's 900 agrarian collectives, which were self-organised by peasant unions. Although industrial and agricultural production was at its highest in the anarchist-controlled areas of the Spanish Republic, and the anarchist militias displayed the strongest military discipline, liberals and communists alike blamed

6903-580: The Levellers, who held similar views. Also influential were the English Cato's Letters during the early 1700s, reprinted eagerly by American colonists who already were free of European aristocracy and feudal land monopolies. In January 1776, only two years after coming to America from England, Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense calling for independence for the colonies. Paine promoted liberal ideas in clear and concise language that allowed

7020-463: The NAP applies only to a civilized context (and not "lifeboat situations") or that it applies only to legal rights (as opposed to general morality). Thus a starving man may, in consonance with general morality, break into a hunting cabin and steal food, but nevertheless he is aggressing, i.e., violating the NAP, and (by most rectification theories) should pay compensation. Critics argue that the legal rights approach might allow people who can afford to pay

7137-405: The NAP is meant to guarantee an individual's sovereignty, libertarians greatly differ on the conditions under which the NAP applies. Especially unsolicited intervention by others, either to prevent society from being harmed by the individual's actions or to prevent an incompetent individual from being harmed by his own actions or inactions, is an important issue. The debate centers on topics such as

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7254-464: The NAP is not violated when the fetus is forcibly removed, with deadly force if need be, from the mother's body, just as the NAP is not violated when an owner removes from the owner's property an unwanted visitor who is not willing to leave voluntarily. Libertarian theorist Walter Block follows this line of argument with his theory of evictionism , but he makes a distinction between evicting the fetus prematurely so that it dies and actively killing it. On

7371-409: The NAP is unable to place a sensible limitation on risk-creating behavior, arguing: Of course, almost everything we do imposes some risk of harm on innocent persons. We run this risk when we drive on the highway (what if we suffer a heart attack, or become distracted), or when we fly airplanes over populated areas. Most of us think that some of these risks are justifiable, while others are not, and that

7488-494: The NAP see taxes as a violation of NAP , while critics of the NAP argue that because of the free-rider problem in case security is a public good , enough funds would not be obtainable by voluntary means to protect individuals from aggression of a greater severity. Geolibertarians , who following the classical economists and Georgists adhere to the Lockean labor theory of property , argue that private ownership of land violates

7605-464: The NAP, and therefore land value taxation is fully compatible with the NAP. Anarcho-capitalists argue that the protection of individuals against aggression is self-sustaining like any other valuable service, and that it can be supplied without coercion by the free market much more effectively and efficiently than by a government monopoly . Their approach, based on proportionality in justice and damage compensation , argues that full restitution

7722-403: The United States , and increasingly worldwide, libertarian is a typology used to describe a political position that advocates small government and is culturally liberal and fiscally conservative in a two-dimensional political spectrum such as the libertarian-inspired Nolan Chart , where the other major typologies are conservative , liberal and populist . Libertarians support

7839-509: The United States, the term libertarian was popularized by the individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker around the late 1870s and early 1880s. Libertarianism as a synonym for liberalism was popularized in May 1955 by writer Dean Russell, a colleague of Leonard Read and a classical liberal himself. Russell justified the choice of the term as follows: Many of us call ourselves "liberals." And it

7956-458: The appropriation of land must leave " enough and as good " for others or be taxed by society to compensate for the exclusionary effects of private property. Socialist libertarians such as social and individualist anarchists , libertarian Marxists , council communists , Luxemburgists and De Leonists promote usufruct and socialist economic theories, including communism , collectivism , syndicalism and mutualism . They criticize

8073-479: The associations they joined as this would facilitate happiness. Anarchist communist philosopher Joseph Déjacque was the first person to describe himself as a libertarian in an 1857 letter. Unlike mutualist anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon , he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature". According to anarchist historian Max Nettlau ,

8190-550: The board. Later, he co-founded the Future Cities Development Corporation, a project to establish a self-governing charter city within the borders of Honduras . In 2012, the Future Cities Development Corporation ceased operations. In 2019, Friedman founded Pronomos Capital, a venture capital firm whose purpose is to bankroll the construction of experimental cities on vacant tracts of land in developing countries. Like The Seasteading Institute, Pronomos Capital

8307-419: The book Thinking, Fast and Slow , Daniel Kahneman provides the brief summary: "Thaler and Sunstein advocate a position of libertarian paternalism, in which the state and other institutions are allowed to nudge people to make decisions that serve their own long-term interests. The designation of joining a pension plan as the default option is an example of a nudge. It is difficult to argue that anyone's freedom

8424-407: The communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over". In the 1970s, Robert Nozick was responsible for popularizing this usage of the term in academic and philosophical circles outside the United States, especially with the publication of Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), a response to social liberal John Rawls 's A Theory of Justice (1971). In the book, Nozick proposed

8541-567: The concept of "self-mastery" as the foundation of a system supporting individual rights. Early Christian sects such as the Waldensians displayed libertarian attitudes. In 17th-century England, libertarian ideas began to take modern form in the writings of the Levellers and John Locke . In the middle of that century, opponents of royal power began to be called Whigs , or sometimes simply Opposition or Country, as opposed to Court writers. During

8658-519: The cutoff point cannot be found by deduction alone because of the Sorites paradox , so the non-aggression principle is necessarily ambiguous. Friedman points out the difficulty of undertaking any activity that poses a certain amount of risk to third parties (e.g., flying) if the permission of thousands of people that might be affected by the activity is required. "Right" has cogently and trenchantly been defined by Professor Sadowsky: When we say that one has

8775-451: The difference between them has something to do with the size and likelihood of the risked harm, the importance of the risky activity, and the availability and cost of less risky activities. But considerations like this carry zero weight in the NAP's absolute prohibition on aggression. That principle seems compatible with only two possible rules: either all risks are permissible (because they are not really aggression until they actually result in

8892-975: The early 20th century after the Great Depression and with the New Deal . Since the 1970s, this classical liberal form of libertarianism has spread beyond the United States, with libertarian or right-libertarian parties being established in the United Kingdom , Israel , South Africa , Argentina , and many other countries. After the fall of the Soviet Union , which caused many people to give up on Marxism or state socialism , libertarian socialism also grew in popularity and influence, alongside left-wing anti-war , anti-capitalist and anti- and alter-globalisation movements. In 2022, former student activist and self-described libertarian socialist Gabriel Boric became head of state of Chile after winning

9009-479: The economy. According to Sheldon Richman of the Independent Institute , other left-libertarians "prefer that corporate privileges be repealed before the regulatory restrictions on how those privileges may be exercised". Libertarian paternalism is a position advocated in the international bestseller Nudge by two American scholars, namely the economist Richard Thaler and the jurist Cass Sunstein . In

9126-653: The elimination of the state in favor of privately funded security services while minarchists defend night-watchman states which maintain only those functions of government necessary to safeguard natural rights, understood in terms of self-ownership or autonomy. Left-libertarianism encompasses those libertarian beliefs that claim the Earth's natural resources belong to everyone in an egalitarian manner, either unowned or owned collectively. Contemporary left-libertarians such as Hillel Steiner , Peter Vallentyne , Philippe Van Parijs , Michael Otsuka and David Ellerman believe

9243-565: The first prototype seastead in the San Francisco Bay by 2010. At the October 2010 Seasteading social, it was announced that current plans were to launch a seastead by 2014. Since attending the Burning Man festival in 2000, Friedman imagined creating a water festival called Ephemerisle as a Seasteading experiment and Temporary Autonomous Zone . Through The Seasteading Institute , Friedman

9360-525: The first use of the term libertarian communism was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to identify its doctrines more clearly. The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure started the weekly paper Le Libertaire ( The Libertarian ) in 1895. The revolutionary wave of 1917–1923 saw the active participation of anarchists in Russia and Europe. Russian anarchists participated alongside

9477-636: The form of legal necessity is involved. They state that as the parents are responsible for that life's position, the NAP would be violated when that life is killed with abortive techniques. The NAP is applicable to any unauthorized actions towards a person's physical property. Supporters of the NAP disagree on whether it should apply to intellectual property rights as well as physical property rights. Some argue that because intellectual concepts are non- rivalrous , intellectual property rights are unnecessary while others argue that intellectual property rights are as valid and important as physical ones. Although

9594-557: The general public to understand the debates among the political elites. Common Sense was immensely popular in disseminating these ideas, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Paine would later write the Rights of Man and The Age of Reason and participate in the French Revolution . Paine's theory of property showed a "libertarian concern" with the unequal distribution of resources under statism. In 1793, William Godwin wrote

9711-609: The higher-law concepts of the Greeks and the Israelites , and Christian theologians who argued for the moral worth of the individual and the division of the world into two realms, one of which is the province of God and thus beyond the power of states to control it. The right-libertarian economist Murray Rothbard suggested that Chinese Taoist philosopher Laozi was the first libertarian, likening Laozi's ideas on government to Friedrich Hayek 's theory of spontaneous order . Similarly,

9828-427: The implausible results consistently applying the principle yields: for example, Professor Matt Zwolinski notes that, because pollution necessarily violates the NAP by encroaching (even if slightly) on other people's property, consistently applying the NAP would prohibit driving, starting a fire, and other activities necessary to the maintenance of industrial society. The NAP also faces definitional issues regarding what

9945-631: The left or right, other American libertarians such as Kevin Carson , Karl Hess , and Roderick T. Long have written about libertarianism's left-wing opposition to authoritarian rule and argued that libertarianism is fundamentally a left-wing position. Rothbard himself previously made the same point. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines libertarianism as the moral view that agents initially fully own themselves and have certain moral powers to acquire property rights in external things. Libertarian historian George Woodcock defines libertarianism as

10062-480: The legalization of victimless crimes such as the use of marijuana while opposing high levels of taxation and government spending on health, welfare, and education. Libertarians also support a foreign policy of non-interventionism . Libertarian was adopted in the United States, where liberal had become associated with a version that supports extensive government spending on social policies. Libertarian may also refer to an anarchist ideology that developed in

10179-403: The legitimate functions of state and non-state power . Different categorizations have been used to distinguish these various forms of libertarianism. Scholars have identified distinct libertarian perspectives on the nature of property and capital , typically delineating them along left–right or socialist – capitalist axes. Libertarianism has been broadly shaped by liberal ideas. In

10296-425: The legitimate owner of the goods. Also, if natural resources cannot be privately owned but are, and always will be, the property of all of mankind then NAP would be violated if such a resource would be used without everybody's consent (see the Lockean proviso and free-market anarchism ). Libertarian philosopher Roderick Long suggests that, as natural resources are required not only for the production of goods but for

10413-513: The liberal challenges to an "absolute central State and a king ruling by divine right on top of an older, restrictive web of feudal land monopolies and urban guild controls and restrictions" as well as the mercantilism of a bureaucratic warfaring state allied with privileged merchants. The object of liberals was individual liberty in the economy, in personal freedoms and civil liberty, separation of state and religion and peace as an alternative to imperial aggrandizement. He cites Locke's contemporaries,

10530-399: The libertarian magazine Reason , libertarian populists oppose "big government" while also opposing "other large, centralized institutions" and advocate "tak[ing] an axe to the thicket of corporate subsidies, favors, and bailouts, clearing our way to an economy where businesses that can't make money serving customers don't have the option of wringing profits from the taxpayers instead". In

10647-489: The mid-19th century, libertarianism originated as a form of anti-authoritarian and anti-state politics usually seen as being on the left (like socialists and anarchists especially social anarchists , but more generally libertarian communists / Marxists and libertarian socialists ). Along with seeking to abolish or reduce the power of the State, these libertarians sought to abolish capitalism and private ownership of

10764-565: The moderate left such as social democracy or authoritarian and statist socialism, its meaning has evolved during the past half century, with broader adoption by ideologically disparate groups, including some viewed as right-wing by older users of the term. As a term, libertarian can include both the New Left Marxists (who do not associate with a vanguard party ) and extreme liberals (primarily concerned with civil liberties ) or civil libertarians . Additionally, some libertarians use

10881-461: The modern world in his writings published before and after the English Revolution of 1688 , especially A Letter Concerning Toleration (1667), Two Treatises of Government (1689) and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). In the text of 1689, he established the basis of liberal political theory, i.e. that people's rights existed before government; that the purpose of government

10998-491: The name Patri Forwalter-Friedman. He graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 1998, and went on to Stanford University to obtain his master's degree in computer science. He also holds an MBA from New York Institute of Technology . He worked as a software engineer at Google. As a poker player, he cashed in the World Series of Poker four times. Friedman was executive director of The Seasteading Institute , founded in 2008, with

11115-399: The nature of property and capital . In the United States, proponents of free-market anti-capitalism consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and see themselves as being part of a broad libertarian left. Libertarianism is a "[t]heory upholding...[individual] rights...above all else" and seeks to "reduce" the power of a state or states, especially ones a libertarian lives in or

11232-537: The nature of property and capital, usually along left–right or socialist–capitalist lines. While all libertarians support some level of individual rights , left-libertarians differ by supporting an egalitarian redistribution of natural resources. Left-libertarian ideologies include anarchist schools of thought , alongside many other anti- paternalist and New Left schools of thought centered around economic egalitarianism as well as geolibertarianism , green politics , market-oriented left-libertarianism and

11349-506: The non-aggression principle by enabling a permissible amount of harm. Some libertarians justify the existence of a minimal state on the grounds that anarcho-capitalism implies that the non-aggression principle is optional because the enforcement of laws is open to competition. Anarcho-capitalists usually respond to this argument that this presumed outcome of what they call "coercive competition" (e.g., private military companies or private defense agencies that enforce local law )

11466-570: The non-aggression principle does not preclude violence used in self-defense or defense of others. Many supporters argue that NAP opposes such policies as victimless crime laws, taxation , and military drafts . NAP is the foundation of libertarian philosophy. NAP faces two kinds of criticism: the first holds that the principle is immoral, and the second argues that it is impossible to apply consistently in practice; respectively, consequentialist or deontological criticisms, and inconsistency criticisms. Libertarian academic philosophers have noted

11583-532: The older libertarian ideal of a night watchman state or minarchism. Sterba held that it is "obviously impossible for everyone in society to be guaranteed complete liberty as defined by this ideal: after all, people's actual wants as well as their conceivable wants can come into serious conflict. [...] [I]t is also impossible for everyone in society to be completely free from the interference of other persons." In 2013, Sterba wrote, "I shall show that moral commitment to an ideal of 'negative' liberty, which does not lead to

11700-409: The other hand, the theory of departurism permits only the non-lethal eviction of the trespassing fetus during a normal pregnancy. Anti-abortion libertarians such as Libertarians for Life argue that because the parents were actively involved in creating a new human life and that life has not consented to their own existence, that life is in the womb by necessity and no parasitism or trespassing in

11817-433: The philosophy that fundamentally doubts authority and advocates transforming society by reform or revolution. Libertarian philosopher Roderick T. Long defines libertarianism as "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary associations of free individuals", whether "voluntary association" takes the form of the free market or of communal co-operatives. According to

11934-400: The political right. Meanwhile, some proponents of free-market anti-capitalism in the United States consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and see themselves as part of a broad libertarian left. While the term libertarian had been substantially synonymous with anarchism and seen by many as part of the left, continuing today as part of the libertarian left in opposition to

12051-437: The production of the human body as well, the very concept of self-ownership can only exist if the land itself is privately owned. Consequentialist libertarian David D. Friedman , who believes that the NAP should be understood as a relative rather than absolute principle, defends his view by using a Sorites argument . Friedman begins by stating what he considers obvious: a neighbor aiming his flashlight at someone's property

12168-587: The protection of an individual's freedom from powers of government and private ownership. In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, modern American libertarians support freedoms based on their agreement with private property rights. The abolition or privatization of amenities or entitlements controlled by the government is a common theme in modern American libertarian writings. According to modern American libertarian Walter Block , left-libertarians and right-libertarians agree with certain libertarian premises, but "where [they] differ

12285-516: The replacement of all state institutions with private alternatives. During this time period, the term "libertarian" became used by growing numbers of people to advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights such as in land, infrastructure and natural resources. This libertarianism, a revival of classical liberalism in the United States , occurred due to other American liberals abandoning classical liberalism and embracing progressivism and economic interventionism in

12402-416: The results of such initiation to be morally superior to the alternatives that they have identified. In arguing against the NAP, philosopher Matt Zwolinski has proposed the following scenario: "Suppose that by imposing a very, very small tax on billionaires, I could provide life-saving vaccination for tens of thousands of desperately poor children. Even if we grant that taxation is aggression, and that aggression

12519-419: The right to do certain things we mean this and only this, that it would be immoral for another, alone or in combination, to stop him from doing this by the use of physical force or the threat thereof. We do not mean that any use a man makes of his property within the limits set forth is necessarily a moral use? Sadowsky's definition highlights the crucial distinction we shall make throughout this work between

12636-410: The rights to freedom of association , freedom of speech , freedom of thought and freedom of choice . They generally support individual liberty and oppose authority , state power, warfare , militarism and nationalism , but some libertarians diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing economic and political systems . Schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding

12753-416: The senses (i.e., eardrum and retina) when it cannot be avoided and that the NAP at that point does apply. Many supporters consider verbal and written threats of imminent physical violence sufficient justification for a defensive response in a physical manner. Those threats would then constitute a legitimate limit to permissible speech. Because freedom of association entails the right of owners to choose who

12870-404: The state for being the defender of private property and believe capitalism entails wage slavery and another form of coercion and domination related to that of the state. There are a number of different left-libertarian positions on the state, which can range from advocating for its complete abolition to advocating for a more decentralized and limited government with social ownership of

12987-475: The term libertarian socialist to avoid anarchism's negative connotations and emphasize its connections with socialism. The revival of free-market ideologies during the mid-to-late 20th century came with disagreement over what to call the movement. While many believers in economic freedom prefer the term libertarian , some free-market conservatives reject the term's association with the 1960s New Left and its connotations of libertine hedonism. The movement

13104-433: The theoretical " tragedy of the commons " and argue that free-market environmentalism will be much more effective in conserving nature. Political theorist Hillel Steiner emphasizes that all things made come from natural resources and that the validity of any rights to those made things depends on the validity of the rights to the natural resources. If land was stolen then anyone buying produce from that land would not be

13221-403: The uncorrupted classical sense. At best, this is awkward and subject to misunderstanding. Here is a suggestion: Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word "libertarian." Subsequently, many Americans with classical liberal beliefs began to describe themselves as libertarians . One person who popularized the term libertarian in this sense

13338-404: Was Murray Rothbard , who began publishing libertarian works in the 1960s. Rothbard described this modern use of the words overtly as a "capture" from his enemies, writing that "for the first time in my memory, we, 'our side,' had captured a crucial word from the enemy. 'Libertarians' had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of

13455-464: Was able to start the Ephemerisle festival in 2009, aided by TSI's James Hogan as event organizer and Chicken John Rinaldi as chief builder. The first Ephemerisle is chronicled in a documentary by Jason Sussberg. Since 2010, the event has been annual and community-run. On July 31, 2011, Friedman stepped down from the position as executive director of The Seasteading Institute, but remained chairman of

13572-584: Was in 1789, when William Belsham wrote about libertarianism in the context of metaphysics. As early as 1796, libertarian came to mean an advocate or defender of liberty, in the sense of a supporter of republicanism , when the London Packet printed on 12 February the following: "Lately marched out of the Prison at Bristol, 450 of the French Libertarians". It was again used in a republican sense in 1802 in

13689-493: Was printed from 9 June 1858 to 4 February 1861 in New York City. Sébastien Faure , another French libertarian communist, began publishing a new Le Libertaire in the mid-1890s while France's Third Republic enacted the so-called villainous laws ( lois scélérates ) which banned anarchist publications in France. Libertarianism has frequently been used to refer to anarchism and libertarian socialism since this time. In

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