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Skepticism and Freedom (Paperback)
Loot Price: R869
Discovery Miles 8 690
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Skepticism and Freedom (Paperback)
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Total price: R889
Discovery Miles: 8 890
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With this book, Richard A. Epstein provides a spirited and
systematic defense of classical liberalism against the critiques
mounted against it over the past thirty years. One of the most
distinguished and provocative legal scholars writing today, Epstein
here explains his controversial ideas in what will quickly come to
be considered one of his cornerstone works.
He begins by laying out his own vision of the key principles of
classical liberalism: respect for the autonomy of the individual, a
strong system of private property rights, the voluntary exchange of
labor and possessions, and prohibitions against force or fraud.
Nonetheless, he not only recognizes but insists that state coercion
is crucial to safeguarding these principles of private ordering and
supplying the social infrastructure on which they depend. Within
this framework, Epstein then shows why limited government is much
to be preferred over the modern interventionist welfare state.
Many of the modern attacks on the classical liberal system seek to
undermine the moral, conceptual, cognitive, and psychological
foundations on which it rests. Epstein rises to this challenge by
carefully rebutting each of these objections in turn. For instance,
Epstein demonstrates how our inability to judge the preferences of
others means we should respect their liberty of choice regarding
their own lives. And he points out the flaws in behavioral economic
arguments which, overlooking strong evolutionary pressures, claim
that individual preferences are unstable and that people are unable
to adopt rational means to achieve their own ends. Freedom, Epstein
ultimately shows, depends upon a skepticism that rightly shuns
making judgmentsabout what is best for individuals, but that also
avoids the relativistic trap that all judgments about our political
institutions have equal worth.
A brilliant defense of classical liberalism, "Skepticism and
Freedom will rightly be seen as an intellectual landmark.
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