This is a chart I’m working on (it should be 3d, x=source pop, y=target pop, z=time) to describe the operation of cooperative processes in populations.
One of the underlying premises of debate is the concept of agreement: that we can convince others to take our position, or at least convince them to compromise somewhat in their own.
I received an email today from a man [...]
Over on Environmental Economics, I took an opposing position to the author, who was asking for a reason for underwriting milk prices.
Tim,
I am not sure how I feel about this. There are plenty of circumstances where prices [...]
In response to Felix Salmon on Portfolio.Com’s Market Movers:
Economic reasoning (actually all philosophical reasoning) is the study of processes from first causes to last causes. Any cause that is not first-cause is simply making assumptions. A practical person [...]
In response to Michael Mandel’s article for Business Week.
Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? Response to Comments
I’ve read through all the comments on my previous post, and I wanted to see if I could respond [...]
The purpose of life, of philosophy. Men have pondered this forever. Since writing and civilization began. The oral traditions tell us stories. But only philosophers and prophets attempt to solve the purpose of life, rather than distribute advice in the [...]
We often talk of freedom as a single, universal thing.
We mix this word, like justice, with all sorts of confusing opinions, so that, for all intents and purposes, the word has little meaning.
So, to discuss it, we should [...]
In his testimony before congress yesterday, former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan stated that he incorrectly anticipated how the market would value mortgage securities, and how easily people would take risks with them.
His suggested method of correction, was to require [...]
About

Curt Doolittle
Seattle, WA, United States
I am an independent theorist of Political Economy in the Conservative Libertarian tradition. And as a methodological Propertarian I attempt to complete the work of Rothbard and Hoppe by suggesting post-democratic political solutions for heterogeneous polities.Purpose
"De Philosophia Aristocratia"
Anglo Conservatism is the remnant of the European Aristocratic Manorial system and the Classical Liberal philosophy of the Enlightenment, combined with our ancient tribal instincts for group persistence and land-holding. It currently consists as a set of sentiments rather than as an articulated rational philosophy. And without that rational articulation, conservatives lack the ability to create and promote a plan that is a positive and rhetorically defensible alternative to the hazards of accidental bureaucracy and purposeful socialism.This lack of an articulated philosophy leaves conservatives vulnerable in the public debate with Schumpeterian public intellectuals whose advantage in both volume of production, and simplicity of argument poses a nearly insurmountable challenge.
Libertarianism by contrast, is a rational philosophy of an articulate but permanent minority. It is based upon a solid, rational and critical methodology, even if it is flawed in its initial assumption: the principle of non-violence.
Unfortunately the Rothbardian Anarchist movement has appropriated the term "Libertarian", and left Classical Liberals and Conservatives alienated from the only system of thought with which they need to articulate their political sentiments in rational and empirical rather than moralistic and sentimental form.
By repairing the flaws in Libertarian philosophy we can use its methodology to provide a rhetorical solution for conservatives - a language which in turn may become an articulated philosophical body of argument and advocacy for the frustrated conservative majority.
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Recent Posts
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Kinsella’s Criticism of Locke, and My Explanation of Locke’s Reasonable Mistake, and What To Do About It.
74 days ago -
Liberty Isn't Inherent. It's unnatural. We create it with Organized Violence.
78 days ago -
Propertarian Definition: REVOLUTION
78 days ago -
Giving Rorty Another Try
78 days ago -
An Skeleton Argument In Defense Of Rorty From Hoppe
78 days ago -
A Propertarian Definition of Ruthless
78 days ago -
The Self Deception Of The Enlightenment View Of Man
78 days ago -
On Rent Seeking
78 days ago
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Kinsella’s Criticism of Locke, and My Explanation of Locke’s Reasonable Mistake, and What To Do About It.