 Hegel's Authoritarian State as the Divine Idea on Earth
by Edward W. Younkins
For Hegel, the State is the highest embodiment of the Divine Idea on earth and the chief means used by the Absolute in manifesting itself as it unfolds towards its perfect fulfillment. Hegel argued that the State is the highest form of social existence and the end product of the development of mankind, from family to civil society to lower forms of political groupings. (Read more...)
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Saturday
November 12, 2005 |
Austrian Economics and Objectivism
by Edward W. Younkins
By combining and synthesizing elements found in Austrian economics, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, and the closely related philosophy of human flourishing that originated with Aristotle, we have the potential to reframe the argument for a free society into a consistent, reality-based whole whose integrated sum of knowledge and explanatory power is greater than that of its parts. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 2, 2005 |
Robert Nozick's Libertarian Framework for Utopia
by Edward W. Younkins
Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia made libertarianism’s views on the nature and legitimacy of the minimal state respectable in academic circles. Nozick revived the classical liberal tradition with his abstract, clever, and often obscure explanation of how a minimal state might arise legitimately in the form of an all-inclusive, rights-respecting protection agency. He was instrumental in creating the intellectual and philosophical foundation that has allowed the creation and flourishing of today’s numerous libertarian organizations. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
October 26, 2005 |
A Review of Virginia Postrel's "The Future and Its Enemies"
by Edward W. Younkins
This well-written, readable, and insightful work defies conventional political boundaries by arguing that a more politically relevant categorization is achieved by defining the ways individuals and groups view the future. Ms. Postrel's book is a must-read for anyone interested in commerce, technology, public policy, and the search for truth in a dynamic world. (Read more...)
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Toward the Unity and Integration of Knowledge: The Study of Political and Economic Philosophy
by Edward W. Younkins
Because no field is totally independent of any other field, there are really no discrete branches of knowledge. There is only cognition in which subjects are separated out for purposes of study. That is fine for purposes of specialization, but in the end, we need to reintegrate by connecting one’s specialized knowledge back into the total knowledge of reality. (Read more...)
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Thomas Sowell's Vision of Reality
by Edward W. Younkins
In his various writings, Thomas Sowell has presented a unified theoretical perspective and potent intellectual framework for analyzing the social order. Sowell’s systematic approach derives mainly from free-market economics, is methodological rather than philosophical or political, and is consistent with the views of intellectuals such as Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund Burke, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman. (Read more...)
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Thursday
September 29, 2005 |
 Dewey's Pragmatism and the Decline of Education
by Edward W. Younkins
Dewey and other members of the Progressive movement wanted a predictable method for providing a common culture and of instilling Americans with democratic values. As a result, by the end of the nineteenth century, a centrally controlled, monopolistic, comprehensive, and bureaucratic public education system was deemed to be essential for America’s future. (Read more...)
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Aristotle and Economics
by Edward W. Younkins
Aristotle saw so much even in the field of economics. He anticipated significant elements of Austrian value theory. For example, he glimpsed the concept of diminishing utility and its application to exchange value (i.e., price) determination. Aristotle is one of the great thinkers in the history of economic thought. (Read more...)
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A Review of Chris Matthew Sciabarra's "Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism"
by Edward W. Younkins
The goals of Total Freedom are to defend the need for a dialectical libertarianism that synthesizes multiple disciplines, and to reclaim dialectics as a viable methodology for libertarian social theory. The author accomplishes this in his well-documented, innovative, and academic treatise. He offers libertarianism as a valid and valuable perspective that is preferable to the status quo and to statism in all its varieties. (Read more...)
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Social Cooperation, Flourishing, and Happiness
by Edward W. Younkins
Praxeological economics and a natural-law-based philosophy of human flourishing and happiness such as Objectivism are complementary and compatible disciplines. Economics teaches us that social cooperation through the private property system and division of labor enables most individuals to prosper and to pursue their flourishing and happiness. In turn, the worldview of human flourishing informs men how to act. (Read more...)
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A Review of Andrew Bernstein's "The Capitalist Manifesto"
by Edward W. Younkins
This solid work is a real contribution to understanding the philosophical, moral, and economic underpinnings of capitalism. Its underlying theme is that the mind is man’s tool of survival and that the mind requires freedom. Bernstein’s well-written book persuasively argues that capitalism rests on a sound moral foundation. (Read more...)
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Rousseau's "General Will" and Well-Ordered Society
by Edward W. Younkins
The idea of the general will is at the heart of Rousseau’s philosophy. The general will is not the will of the majority. Rather, it is the will of the political organism that he sees as an entity with a life of its own. The general will is an additional will, somehow distinct from and other than any individual will or group of individual wills. The general will is, by some means, endowed with goodness and wisdom surpassing the beneficence and wisdom of any person or collection of persons. (Read more...)
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 Dagny Taggart: Exemplar of Independence and Mind-Body Integration
by Edward W. Younkins
Dagny, like Hank Rearden, is a self-initiator who goes by her own judgments and is the motive power of her own happiness. Unlike Rearden, she does not feel guilty for her achievements. Dagny is a purposeful, strong, and passionately creative embodiment of mind-body unity. (Read more...)
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Plato's Advocacy of Collectivism
by Edward W. Younkins
Plato (427-347 b.c.) held that the world is made up of two opposed dimensions—true reality (i.e., the intelligible) and the material world (i.e., the sensible). True reality is a set of universal ideas that are the “essential forms,” “absolute essences,” or “disembodied abstractions,” which represent and contain all t... (Read more...)
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 The Hank Rearden Story: The Path to Mind-Body Integration
by Edward W. Younkins
In reality there is no split between the mental and the physical. Man is an inextricable fusion of mind and body. The values of one’s mind are not disconnected from the actions of one’s body. It follows that the generally accepted mind/body and love/sex dichotomies are destructive to human flourishing. Dualism is incompatible with true human existence. Man is an indivisible entity that can only be divided for purposes of discussion. (Read more...)
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Dignity Demystified
by Edward W. Younkins
Every time I hear Bob Dylan’s excellent song, “Dignity,” I wonder what it is that various people have in mind when they use that word. The expression “human dignity” is used by a wide variety of people coming from all different directions and is used in a great diversity of contexts. Dignity is a universal human concer... (Read more...)
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Adam Smith's Moral and Economic System
by Edward W. Younkins
It was left to Rand to formulate a more explicit and fundamentally moral, rather than economic, justification for capitalism. Her rationale was based on moral individualism, rational self-interest, rational epistemology, and reason as the paramount and fundamental means for people to associate and interact with one another.
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John Rawls' Theory of Blind "Justice"
by Edward W. Younkins
What makes Rawls’ idea of justice so important is that he systematically expresses a vision that had already underpinned a great deal of social policy, legal theory, and even international relations. The goal of Rawls’ conception of justice is to put certain segments of society in the position that they would have been in except for some undeserved and unfortunate circumstances. (Read more...)
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Principles of Metanormative Justice
by Edward W. Younkins
Justice is a concept that applies only to other-directed human actions. The question of justice and injustice only arises when there are multiple individuals and some practical considerations regarding their situations and/or interactions with one another. In one sense, it is a concrete, objective, and recognizable pri... (Read more...)
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"Who is Henry M. Galt?": A Review of Garet Garrett's "The Driver"
by Edward W. Younkins
Although The Driver is flawed by its sketchy characterization and its bewildering and extraneous subplot involving Galt’s family, it is still to be recommended for the portrait it paints of a hard working, visionary, passionate, loyal, and competent businessman and for the sense of the “drive of the age” that it conveys. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 16, 2005 |
The Road to Objective Economics: Hayek Takes a Wrong Turn
by Edward W. Younkins
Although Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was not an economist, her rational epistemology and Objectivist ethics not only bring us back on the road to objective economics traveled by Austrians such as Menger and Rothbard, her ideas move us further down that road. Her epistemology transcends both Mises’ rationalism and Hayek’s empiricism. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 9, 2005 |
The Robert Stadler Story: The Moral Fall of a Man Who Knew Better
by Edward W. Younkins
There are many villains in Ayn Rand’s masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged. However, her ultimate villain by far is Dr. Robert Stadler – a man who knew better. Robert Stadler is a villain and a man of stature who once possessed some excellent qualities. A man of great intelligence, Stadler early in the novel loved ability in ot... (Read more...)
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Mises, Friedman and Rand: A Methodological Comparison
by Edward W. Younkins
Three of the most respected and influential free-market thinkers of the 20th century are Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Milton Friedman (1912- ), and Ayn Rand (1905-1982). The purpose of this essay is to compare and evaluate the respective methodological approaches of each of these theorists who have influenced the course of history with their ideas. We will see how and why Rand’s realist approach is superior to both Mises’ rationalism and Friedman’s empiricism. (Read more...)
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A Randian Definition of the Common Good
by Edward W. Younkins
Whatever is alleged to be the common good must be good and must be universal. The common good must be that which is good for every human being. Liberty fulfills this requirement, because protected self-directedness is good for every person. The common good rests not in what men do when they are free, but rather in the fact that they are free. The common good consists in treating each person as an end and never solely as a means to an end. This simply means respecting the personal autonomy of each individual. (Read more...)
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Thursday
December 30, 2004 |
Political Correctness Threatens Free Society
by Edward W. Younkins
Political correctness involves the translation of Marxism from economic terms into cultural terms. The premise underlying political correctness is that if the elite can change the language then they can change the way individuals act and thus change society. Political correctness has corrupted the news media, universit... (Read more...)
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