Rothbard, Murray

From New World Encyclopedia
Line 2: Line 2:
 
{{epname|Rothbard, Murray}}
 
{{epname|Rothbard, Murray}}
 
[[Image:Murray Rothbard.jpg|thumb|200 px|Rothbard circa 1955]]
 
[[Image:Murray Rothbard.jpg|thumb|200 px|Rothbard circa 1955]]
−
'''Murray Newton Rothbard''' (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an influential [[United States|American]] [[economics|economist]], [[historian]] and [[natural law]] theorist belonging to the [[Austrian School|Austrian School of Economics]] who helped define modern [[libertarianism]].<ref>David Miller. ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought''. (New York: Blackwell Publishing, 1991, ISBN 0631179445)</ref><ref>[http://www.zetetics.com/mac/rockwell/mcelroy000706.html Murray N. Rothbard: Mr. Libertarian] - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref> Rothbard took the Austrian School's emphasis on [[spontaneous order]] and condemnation of [[central planning]] to an [[individualist anarchist]] conclusion,<ref>Matthew Miskelly, and Jaime Noce. ''Political theories for students.'' (Detroit: Gale Group, 2002, ISBN 0787656453), P. 7</ref> which he termed "[[anarcho-capitalism]]." He was son of David and Rae Rothbard. On January 16 1953, he was married to [[JoAnn Schumacher]] in [[New York City]].
 
  
−
== Life ==
+
'''Murray Newton Rothbard''' (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995),  a scholar of extraordinary range, made major contributions to economics, history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He developed and extended the Austrian economics of Ludwig von Mises, in whose seminar he was a main participant for many years. He established himself as the principal Austrian theorist in the latter half of the twentieth century and applied Austrian analysis to historical topics such as the Great Depression of 1929 and the history of American banking.  
−
Rothbard was born into a [[Jewish]] family in the Bronx. "I grew up in a Communist culture," he recalled. He attended [[Columbia University]], where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics (1945), a Master of Arts degree (1946), and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in economics in 1956.
+
Rothbard was no ivory-tower scholar, interested only in academic controversies. Quite the contrary, he combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty. He developed a unique synthesis that combined themes from nineteenth-century American individualists such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker with Austrian economics. A new political philosophy was the result, and Rothbard devoted his remarkable intellectual energy, over a period of some forty-five years, to developing and promoting his style of libertarianism. In doing so, he became a major American public intellectual.
 +
In forty-five years of scholarship and activism, Rothbard produced over two dozen books and thousands of articles that made sense of the world from a radical individualist perspective. In doing so, it is no exaggeration to say that Rothbard created the modern libertarian movement.
 +
Specifically, he refined and fused together:
 +
*natural law theory, using a basic Aristotelian or Randian approach;
 +
*the radical civil libertarianism of 19th century individualist-anarchists, especially Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker;
 +
*the free market philosophy of Austrian economists, in particular Ludwig von Mises, into which he incorporated sweeping economic histories; and,
 +
*the foreign policy of the American Old Right – that is, isolationism.  
  
−
In the course of his life, Rothbard was associated with a number of political thinkers and movements. During the early 1950s, he studied under the Austrian economist [[Ludwig von Mises]], along with [[George Reisman]]. Then he began working for the [[William Volker Fund]]. During the late 1950s, Rothbard was an associate of [[Ayn Rand]] and [[Nathaniel Branden]], a relationship later lampooned in his unpublished play ''[[Mozart Was a Red]]''. In the late 1960s, Rothbard advocated an alliance with the [[New Left]] anti-war movement, on the grounds that the conservative movement had been completely subsumed by the statist establishment. However Rothbard later criticized the New Left for not truly being against the draft and supporting a "People's Republic" style draft. It was during this phase that he associated with [[Karl Hess]] and founded ''[[Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought]]'' with [[Leonard Liggio]] and George Resch, which existed from 1965 to 1968. From 1969 to 1984 he edited ''[[The Libertarian Forum]]'', also initially with Hess (although Hess' involvement ended in 1971). In 1977, he established the ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'', which he edited until his death in 1995.
 
  
−
During the 1970s and '80s, Rothbard was active in the [[United States Libertarian Party|Libertarian Party]]. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics: from 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus (later reorganized as the [[Rothbard Caucus]]), allying himself with [[Justin Raimondo]], and [[Williamson Evers|Bill Evers]] and opposing the "low tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 presidential candidate [[Ed Clark]] and [[Cato Institute]] president [[Ed Crane|Edward H Crane III]]. He split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention, and aligned himself with what he called the "rightwing populist" wing of the party, notably [[Ron Paul]], who ran for President on the LP ticket 1988. In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-[[Cold War]] right. He was the founding president of the conservative-libertarian [[John Randolph Club]] and supported the presidential campaign of [[Pat Buchanan]] in 1992. However, prior to his death in [[Manhattan]] of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]], Rothbard had become disillusioned with the Buchanan movement.
+
== Biography ==
 +
Murray Rothbard was born March 2, 1926, the son of David and Rae Rothbard. He was a brilliant student even as a young child; and his academic record at Columbia University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, was stellar. In the Columbia economics department, Rothbard did not receive any instruction in Austrian economics, and Mises was no more than a name to him. In a course on price theory given by [[George Stigler]], however, he encountered arguments against such then popular measures as price and rent control. These arguments greatly appealed to him; and he wrote to the publisher of a pamphlet that [[Stigler]] and [[Milton Friedman]] had written on rent control.
 +
The publisher in question was the Foundation for Economic Education; and visits to this group’s headquarters led Rothbard to a meeting with [[Ludwig von Mises]]. Rothbard was at once attracted to Mises’s laissez-faire economics, and when Mises’s masterwork Human Action appeared in 1949, it made a great impression on him. He was henceforward a praxeologist: here in Mises’s treatise was the consistent and rigorous defense of a free economy for which he had long been in search. He soon became an active member of Mises’s seminar at New York University. In the late 1950s, Rothbard was briefly involved with [[Ayn Rand]]'s Objectivism, but later had a falling out.
 +
Meanwhile, he continued his graduate studies at Columbia, working toward his Ph.D. His mentor was the eminent economic historian Joseph Dorfman, and Rothbard received the degree in 1956, with a thesis on The Panic of 1819 that remains a standard work.
 +
On 16 January 1953, he married JoAnn Schumacher in New York City.
 +
Rothbard soon attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, the main group that supported classical liberal scholars in the 1950s and early 1960s. He began a project to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a fashion suitable for college students; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises’s approval. As Rothbard continued his work, he transformed the project. The result, Man, Economy, and State (1962), was a central work of Austrian economics.
 +
During the 1970s and '80s, Rothbard was active in the [[United States Libertarian Party|Libertarian Party]]. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics: from 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus and opposing the "low tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 presidential candidate [[Ed Clark]] and [[Cato Institute]] president [[Ed Crane|Edward H Crane III]].  
  
−
In addition to his work on economics and political theory, Rothbard also wrote on economic history. He is one of the few economic authors who have studied and presented the pre-[[Adam Smith|Smithian]] economic schools, such as the [[scholastics]] and the [[physiocrats]]. These are discussed in his unfinished, multi-volume work, ''[[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought]]''.
+
He split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention. In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-[[Cold War]] right. He was the founding president of the conservative-libertarian [[John Randolph Club]] and supported the presidential campaign of [[Pat Buchanan]] in 1992. However, prior to his death in [[Manhattan]] of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]], Rothbard had, eventually, become disillusioned with the Buchanan movement.  He died in 1995.  
  
−
Rothbard opposed what he considered the overspecialization of the academy and sought to fuse the disciplines of economics, history, ethics, and political science to create a "science of liberty," as reflected in his many books and articles. His approach was influenced by the arguments of Ludwig von Mises in such books as ''[[Human Action]]'' and ''[[Theory and History]]'' that the foundations of the social sciences are in a logic of human action that can be known prior to empirical investigation. Rothbard sought to use such insights to guide historical research, especially in his work on economic history, but also in his four-volume history of the [[American Revolution]], ''[[Conceived in Liberty]]''.
+
==Rothbard’s main works==
 +
Murray Rothbard was a grand system builder. In his monumental Man, Economy, and State (1962), Rothbard continued, embodied, and extended [[Ludwig von Mises]]' methodological approach of praxeology to economics. His magnum opus was modeled after Mises' Human Action and, for the most part, was a massive restatement, defense, and development of the Misesian praxeological tradition.  
  
−
He was the academic vice president of the [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] and the [[Center for Libertarian Studies]] (which he founded in 1976), was a distinguished professor at the [[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]], and edited the ''[[Rothbard-Rockwell Report]]'' with [[Lew Rockwell]].
 
  
−
== The Austrian School ==
+
Rothbard followed up and complemented Man, Economy, and State with his brilliant The Ethics of Liberty (1982) in which he provided the foundation for his metanormative ethical theory. Exhibiting an architectonic character, these two works form an integrated system of philosophy. His main scientific output could be, therefore and for the sake of simplification,  defined in the three main  issues and one, that appeared, as a important issue, posthumously.
  
−
{{main|Austrian School}}
 
  
−
The Austrian School of economics was founded with the publication of [[Carl Menger]]'s 1871 book ''[[Principles of Economics]]''. Members of this school approach economics as an ''a priori'' system like logic or mathematics, rather than as an empirical science like geology. It attempts to discover axioms of human action (called "[[praxeology]]" in the Austrian tradition) and make deductions therefrom. Some of these praxeological axioms are:
+
===Praxeology===
  
−
:*Humans act purposefully.
 
−
:*Humans prefer more of a good to less.
 
−
:*Humans prefer to receive a good sooner rather than later.
 
−
:*Each party to a trade benefits ''[[ex ante]]''.
 
  
−
Even in the early days, Austrian economics was used as a theoretical weapon against socialism and statist socialist policy. [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk]], a colleague of Menger, wrote one of the first critiques of socialism ever written in his treatise ''The Exploitation Theory of Socialism-Communism''. Later, [[Friedrich Hayek]] wrote ''[[The Road to Serfdom]]'', asserting that a [[command economy]] destroys the information function of prices, and that authority over the economy leads to [[totalitarianism]]. Another very influential Austrian economist was [[Ludwig von Mises]], author of the praxeological work ''[[Human Action]]''.
+
In a 1971 article in Modern Age, Murray Rothbard declared that Mises' work provides us with an economic paradigm grounded in the nature of man and in individual choice. Rothbard explains that Mises' paradigm furnishes economics in a systematic, integrated form that can serve as a correct alternative to the crisis situation that modern economics has engendered. According to Rothbard, it is time for us to adopt this paradigm in all of its facets ( Rothbard, 1971.)
  
−
Murray Rothbard, a student of Mises, is the man who attempted to meld Austrian economics with classical liberalism and individualist anarchism, and is credited with coining the term "anarcho-capitalism." He was probably the first to use "libertarian" in its current (U.S.) pro-capitalist sense. He was a trained economist, but also knowledgeable in history and political philosophy. When young, he considered himself part of the [[Old Right]], an anti-statist and anti-[[interventionist]] branch of the [[Republican Party (United States)|U.S. Republican]] party. When interventionist [[cold warrior]]s of the ''[[National Review]]'', such as [[William Buckley]], gained influence in the Republican party in the 1950s, Rothbard quit that group and formed an alliance with [[left-wing]] [[antiwar]] groups. Later, Rothbard was an early supporter of the U.S. Libertarian Party, despite initially opposing it on grounds that it was premature. In the late 1950s, Rothbard was briefly involved with [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[Objectivist philosophy|Objectivism]], but later had a falling out. Rothbard's books, such as ''[[Man, Economy, and State]]'', ''[[Power and Market]]'', ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'', and ''[[For a New Liberty]]'', are considered by some to be classics of natural law libertarian thought.
+
Like Mises, Rothbard begins with the axiom that human beings act and believes that all of economic theory can be logically deduced from this starting point. Committed to the praxeological method, Rothbard's writings are characterized by value-free deductive reasoning, abstract universal principles, and methodological individualism. He agrees with Mises that the basic test of economic theory is the truth of the premise and the logical chain of reasoning involved. By setting out from the undeniable fact that a person acts, Rothbard establishes economics as a logic of action.
  
−
Rothbard divides the various kinds of state intervention in three categories:
+
Rothbard defends Mises' methodology but goes on to construct his own edifice of Austrian economic theory. Although he embraced nearly all of Mises' economics, Rothbard could not accept Mises' Kantian extreme aprioristic position in epistemology.
−
# ''autistic intervention'', which is interference with private non-exchange activities
+
Mises held that the axiom of human action was true a priori to human experience and was, in fact, a synthetic a priori category. Mises considered the action axiom to be a law of thought and thus a categorical truth prior to all human experience.
−
# ''binary intervention'', which is forced exchange between individuals and the state
 
−
# ''triangular intervention'', which is state-mandated exchange between individuals.
 
  
−
According to [[Sanford Ikeda]], Rothbard's typology "eliminates the gaps and inconsistencies that appear in Mises's original formulation."<ref>Sanford Ikeda. ''Dynamics of the Mixed Economy: Toward a Theory of Inteventionism.'' (New York: Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415089336), P. 245</ref>
+
Murray Rothbard agreed that the action axiom is universally true and self-evident but argued that a person becomes aware of that axiom and its subsidiary axioms through experience in the world. A person begins with concrete human experience and then moves toward reflection. Once a person forms the basic axioms and concepts from his experiences with the world and from his reflections upon those experiences, he does not need to resort to external experience to validate an economic hypothesis. Instead, deductive reasoning from sound basics will validate it.
  
−
Rothbard argued that the entire Austrian economic theory is the working out of the logical implications of the fact that humans engage in purposeful action.<ref>Curtis M Grimm,  Hun Lee, and Ken G Smith. ''Strategy as Action: Competitive Dynamics and Competitive Advantage.'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0195161440), P. 43</ref>
+
Rothbard, working within an Aristotelian, Thomistic, or Mengerian tradition, justified the praxeological action axiom as a law of reality that is empirical rather than a priori.  
  
−
== Anarcho-capitalism ==
+
Of course, this is not the empiricism embraced by positivists. This kind of empirical knowledge rests on universal inner or reflective experience in addition to external physical experience. This type of empirical knowledge consists of a general knowledge of human action that would be considered to be antecedent to the complex historical events that mainstream economists to try to explain. The action axiom is empirical in the sense that it is self-evidently true once stated. It is not empirically falsifiable in the positivist sense. It is empirical but it is not based on empiricism as practiced by today's economics profession. Praxeological statements cannot be subjected to any empirical assessment whether it is falsificationist or verificationist.
  
−
{{main|Anarcho-capitalism}}
+
In a 1957 article in the Southern Economic Journal, Rothbard states that it is a waste of time to argue or try to determine how the truth of the action axiom is obtained. He explains that the all important fact is that the axiom is self-evidently true for all people, at all places, at all times, and that it could not even conceivably be violated.
 +
Rothbard was not concerned with the controversy over the empirical status of the praxeological axiom. Whether it was a law of thought as Mises maintained or a law of reality as Rothbard himself contended, the axiom would be no less certain because the axiom need only to be stated to become at once self-evident. In Rothbard's words:
 +
“……Whether we consider the Axiom "a priori" or "empirical" depends on our ultimate philosophical position. Professor Mises, in the neo-Kantian tradition, considers this axiom a law of thought and therefore a categorical truth a priori to all experience. My own epistemological position rests on Aristotle and St. Thomas rather than Kant, and hence I would interpret the proposition differently. I would consider the axiom a law of reality rather than a law of thought, and hence "empirical" rather than "a priori." But it should be obvious that this type of "empiricism" is so out of step with modern empiricism that I may just as well continue to call it a priori for present purposes. For (1) it is a law of reality that is not conceivably falsifiable, and yet is empirically meaningful and true; (2) it rests on universal inner experience, and not simply on external experience, that is, its evidence is reflective rather than physical; and (3) it is clearly a priori to complex historical events……..” ( Rothbard, 1957)
 +
Rothbard nevertheless continued to endorse Mises' monumental, integrated, and systematic treatise, Human Action, as a complete and true paradigm based on the nature of man and individual choice. Although he disagrees with Mises' epistemology, he does agree that Mises' praxeological economics appropriately begins with, and verbally deduces logical implications from, the fact that individuals act. Rothbard contends that it's time for Mises' paradigm to be embraced if we are to find our way out of the methodological and political problems of the modern world ( Rothbard, 1962 )
  
−
<blockquote>Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html ''Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard''] The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal (25 February 1972) - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref></blockquote>
+
The Aristotelian, neo-Thomistic and natural-law-oriented Rothbard refers to laws of reality that the mind apprehends by examining and adducing the facts of the real world. Conception is a way of comprehending real things. It follows that perception and experience are not the products of a synthetic a priori process but rather are apprehensions whose structured unity is due to the nature of reality itself. In opposition to Mises, Rothbard contends that the action axiom and its subsidiary axioms are derived from the experience of reality and are therefore radically empirical. These axioms are based on both external experience and universal inner experience. By 1978, Rothbard was stronger in voicing his opposition to Mises' Kantian epistemology:
 +
“……Without delving too deeply into the murky waters of epistemology, I would deny, as an Aristotelian and neo-Thomist, any such alleged 'laws of logical structure' that the human mind necessarily imposes on the chaotic structure of reality. Instead, I would call all such laws "laws of reality," which the mind apprehends from investigating and collating the facts of the real world. My view is that the fundamental axiom and subsidiary axioms are derived from the experience of reality and are therefore in the broadest sense empirical. I would agree with the Aristotelian realist view that its doctrine is radically empirical, far more so than the post-Humean empiricism which is dominant in modern philosophy…..”( Rothbard,  1976.)
 +
But Rothbard has not received sufficient credit for the monumental task of integration that he achieved with such elegance. There are a number of reasons for this oversight. One of them is the short shrift that academia gives to system-building in preference to extreme specialization within disciplines that are already carefully defined.  
 +
Rothbard once complained:
 +
"…..Probably the most common question that has been hurled at me – in some exasperation – over the years is: 'Why don't you stick to economics?'……."
 +
Calling the question a "said reflection on the hyperspecialization among intellectuals," Rothbard continued, "...this syndrome has been carried so far that they scorn any attention to politico-economic problems as a demeaning and unclean impurity..."  ( Rothbard, 1974.)
  
−
Rothbard was "a student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, [who] combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as [[Lysander Spooner]] and [[Benjamin Tucker]]."<ref>David Miller. ''The Blackwell encyclopaedia of political thought.'' (Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1987, ISBN 0631227814), P. 290</ref> Rothbard said:{{cquote|Lysander Spooner and Benjamin T. Tucker were unsurpassed as political philosophers and nothing is more needed today than a revival and development of the largely forgotten legacy they left to political philosophy...There is, in the body of thought known as '[[Austrian economics]]', a scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung.<ref name="Spooner-Tucker Doctrine">[http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/20_1/20_1_2.pdf The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View] - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref>}} Like the nineteenth century individualists, he believed that security should be provided by multiple competing businesses rather than by a tax-funded central agency.<ref>William Outhwaite. ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought''. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2002, ISBN 0631221646}}</ref> However, he rejected their [[labor theory of value]] in favor of the modern neo-classical [[Marginalism|marginalist]] view. Thus, like most modern economists, he did not believe that prices in a free market would, or should be, proportional to labor (nor that "usury" or "exploitation" necessarily occurs where they are disproportionate). Instead, he believed that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are ultimately the result of goods and services having different [[marginal utilities]] rather than the fact they contain differing amounts of labor - and that there is nothing unjust about this. Rothbard also disagreed with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change where banking is unregulated. Nor, did he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money because he believed the supply of money in a truly free market is self-regulating. And, he believed that it is good that it would not increase the supply or inflation would result.<ref name="Spooner-Tucker Doctrine"> Rothbard said he was "strongly tempted to call [himself] an “individualist anarchist," except he believed that "Spooner and Tucker have in a sense preempted that name for their doctrine and that from that doctrine I have certain differences." So, he chose to call his philosophy "anarcho-capitalism." However, today, the term "individualist anarchism" has in fact not been preempted by the nineteenth century individualists, because a wide range of scholars do say that anarcho-capitalism is a capitalist form of individualist anarchism.<ref> Such accounts specifying anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism include:
 
−
* Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, ''The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought'', W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30
 
−
* Outhwaite, William. ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, p. 21, 2002.
 
−
* Bottomore, Tom. '' Dictionary of Marxist Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, 1991.
 
−
* Barry, Norman. ''Modern Political Theory'', 2000, Palgrave, p. 70
 
−
* Adams, Ian. ''Political Ideology Today'', Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0-7190-6020-6, p. 135
 
−
* Grant, Moyra. ''Key Ideas in Politics'', Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91
 
−
* Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green'', City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
 
−
* [[Geoffrey Ostergaard]]. [http://www.ppu.org.uk/e_publications/dd-trad6.html ''Resisting the Nation State - the anarchist and pacifist tradition, Anarchism As A Tradition of Political Thought'']. Peace Pledge Union Publications
 
−
* [[Paul Avrich|Avrich, Paul]]. ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
 
−
* Sheehan, Sean. ''Anarchism'', Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39
 
−
* Tormey, Simon. ''Anti-Capitalism'', One World, 2004. pp. 118-119
 
−
* Levy, Carl. [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568770_2/Anarchism.html Anarchism], Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 [4] MS Encarta (UK)
 
−
* Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 11
 
−
* Gabardi, Wayne of University of California, Santa Barbara. Review of Anarchism by David Miller (London: J. J. Dent and Sons, 1984. pp 216). American Political Science Review Vol. 80. p. 300
 
−
* Review in Journal of Economic Literature (JEL 83-1167, p. 1620) of David Osterfeld's Freedom, Society, and the State, University Press of America, 1983
 
−
* Sturgis, Amy. Presidents from Hayes Through McKinley: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primay Documents. Westport, Conn Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, p.2
 
−
* Love, Nancy Sue. Dogmas and Dreams: A Reader in Modern Political Ideologies Chatham House Studies in Political Thinking. Chatham, N.J. Chatham House, an imprint of Seven Bridges, 1998 p. 357
 
−
* [[Ralph Raico|Raico, Ralph]]. ''Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century'', Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
 
−
* Offer, John. ''Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments'', Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243</ref> According to [[Mutualism (economic theory)|mutualist]], [[Kevin Carson]] who subscribes to the old theories, few individualist anarchists still agree with the labor theory of value of the nineteenth century individualists or their theories on money, and as a result, "most people who call themselves 'individualist anarchists' today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics."<ref name="carson">[http://www.mutualist.org/id112.html Mutualist Political Economy Preface] - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref> For example, anarcho-capitalist [[Wendy McElroy]] refers to herself as a "Rothbardian and an individualist anarchist."<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcelroy/mcelroy80.html The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics: The Case Against the Brandens] - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref>
 
−
[[Image:Rothbard-MES.jpg|frame|left|Cover of the 2004 edition of "Man, Economy, and State".]] Anarchists who are not [[individualist anarchists]] oppose the idea that private defense could be compatible with anarchism.{{Fact|date=March 2007}} It was in 1949 that Rothbard first concluded that the free market could provide all services, including police, courts, and defense services better than could the State. Prior to this it was advocated by nineteenth century individualist anarchists such as [[Benjamin Tucker]], whose writings were an influence on Rothard<ref>Tucker said, "[D]efense is a service like any other service; that it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity subject to the law of supply and demand; that in a free market this commodity would be furnished at the cost of production; that, competition prevailing, patronage would go to those who furnished the best article at the lowest price; that the production and sale of this commodity are now monopolized by the State; and that the State, like almost all monopolists, charges exorbitant prices." Tucker, Benjamin. "Instead of a Book" (1893). Also, "Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty October 19, 1891</ref> Prior to this it was advocated by [[Gustave de Molinari]] who Rothbard calls the first anarcho-capitalist. Rothbard described the moral basis for his anarcho-capitalist position in two of his books, ''[[For a New Liberty]]'', published in 1972, and ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'', published in 1982. He described how a stateless economy would function in his book ''[[Power and Market]].'' According to Rothbard, the difference between a state and voluntary defense is that a state taxes and it enforces a territorial monopoly, over property that it does not own (private property), on the use of defense and punitive force. Private defense relies on voluntary payments and it does not forcefully prevent other private defenders from competing for business. For example, if someone subscribed to a private police agency, and someone had broken into that person's home, then that individual could call the private police to come to the home and arrest the intruder and take him to a private jail and private court. A state claims a monopoly over such force on property that anarcho-capitalists do not believe that the state owns (e.g. the person's home); it does not permit this kind of competition, by definition.
 
  
−
In [[The Ethics of Liberty]], Rothbard asserted the right of 100 percent [[self-ownership]], as the only principle compatible with a moral code that applies to every person - a "universal ethic" - and that it is a natural law by being what is naturally best for man.<ref>Murray Newton Rothbard. ''The ethics of liberty.'' (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1982, ISBN 0391023713), P. 45</ref> He believed that, as a result, individuals owned the fruits of their labor. Accordingly, each person had the right to exchange his property with others. He believed that if an individual mixes his labor with unowned land then he is the proper owner, and from that point on it is private property that may only exchange hands by trade or gift. He also argued that such land would tend not to remain unused unless it makes economic sense to not put it to use.<ref>Kyriazi, Harold. Reckoning With Rothbard (2004). American Journal of Economics and Sociology 63 (2), p. 451</ref> Rothbard defined the libertarian position through what is called the non-aggression principle, that "No person may aggress against anybody else." Rothbard attacked taxation as theft, because it was taking someone else's property without his consent. Further, conscription was slavery, and war was murder. Rothbard also opposed compulsory jury service and involuntary mental hospitalization.
+
===Anarcho-Capitalism===
  
−
It must be noted that there are other versions of anarcho-capitalism besides Rothard's version. For example [[David D. Friedman]]'s anarcho-capitalism advocates that law itself be bought and sold in the market, rather than just defense services. In Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism, there would first be the implementation of a mutually agreed-upon libertarian "legal code which would be generally accepted, and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow."<ref>[http://www.mises.org/rothbard/newliberty11.asp 12 The Public Sector, III: Police, Law, and the Courts] - Retrieved November 2, 2007.</ref> This legal code would recognize [[sovereignty of the individual]] and the [[non-aggression principle|principle of non-aggression]].
+
Rothbard was totally committed to the praxeological method. In fact, he thought that Mises was not sufficiently thoroughgoing or revolutionary enough with respect to his praxeological deductions. By consistently taking the praxeological path in economics, Rothbard arrives at the desirability of a pure anarcho-capitalist society. He convincingly argues that a stateless society is the only society totally consonant with natural rights to person and property.  
  
−
===Tactics===
+
For Rothbard:  
−
Rothbard criticized the "frenzied nihilism" of left-wing libertarians but also criticized right-wing libertarians who were content to rely only on education to bring down the state; he believed that libertarians should adopt any non-immoral tactic available to them in order bring about liberty.<ref>Ronald Lora, and William Henry Longton. ''The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America.'' (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1999, ISBN 0313213909), P. 369</ref>
 
  
−
== Rothbard's law ==
+
*(1) freedom means private property, consent, and contract. It follows that the institutions and projects of a legitimate society stem from consensual agreements between property owners. Rothbard endorsed private property anarchism because he could not reconcile a coercive monopoly government with men's natural rights to liberty and legitimately acquired property, and
−
Rothbard's law is a self-attributed [[adage]]. In essence, Rothbard suggested that an otherwise talented individual would specialize and focus in an area at which they were weaker—or simply flat out wrong. Or as he often put it: "everyone specializes in what he is worst at."
 
−
[[Image:Rothbard-EconThought.jpg|frame|right|Cover from the first volume of the 2006 [[Mises Institute]] edition of ''An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought'']]
 
−
In one example, he discusses his time spent with Ludwig von Mises,
 
  
−
:''In all the years I attended his seminar and was with him, he never talked about foreign policy. If he was an interventionist on foreign affairs, I never knew it. This is a violation of Rothbard's law, which is that people tend to specialize in what they are worst at. [[Henry George]], for example, is great on everything but land, so therefore he writes about land 90% of the time. [[Milton Friedman|Friedman]] is great except on money, so he concentrates on money. Mises, however, and [[Israel Kirzner|Kirzner]] too, always did what they were best at.''
+
*(2)  the state cannot be defended on praxeological or moral grounds. He systematizes a fully consistent argument against government intervention in human pursuits in any form or circumstances. Rothbard demonstrates that there exists no proper role for the State by explaining how market enterprises or associations can supply any good or service desired by individuals. Private companies and voluntary associations can do whatever needs to be accomplished. The market can produce all goods and services including defense, security, and arbitration activities.
  
−
Continuing on this point,
 
−
:''There was another group coming up in the sixties, students of [[Robert LeFevre]]'s [[Freedom School]] and later [[Rampart College]]. At one meeting, Friedman and [[Gordon Tullock|Tullock]] were brought in for a week, I had planned to have them lecture on occupational licensing and on ocean [[privatization]], respectively. Unfortunately, they spoke on these subjects for 30 minutes and then rode their hobby horses, monetary theory and [[public choice]], the rest of the time. I immediately clashed with [[Milton Friedman|Friedman]]. He had read my [[America's Great Depression]] and was furious that he was suddenly meeting all these Rothbardians. He didn't know such things existed.''
 
  
−
== Criticism of Keynes and Bentham ==
 
−
Rothbard was an ardent critic of the influential economist [[John Maynard Keynes]] and [[Keynesian]] economic thought. His essay ''Keynes, the Man''[http://www.mises.org/etexts/keynestheman.pdf], is a scathing attack upon Keynes' economic ideas and personage.
 
  
−
Rothbard, among others, was also severely critical of [[utilitarian]] [[philosopher]] [[Jeremy Bentham]] in his essay, ''Jeremy Bentham: The Utilitarian as Big Brother'' published in his work, ''Classical Economics''.
+
===Ethics===
  
−
==Economists and the free market==
+
Rothbard produced a system of political and social philosophy based on economics and ethics as its foundations. First, he presented an exhaustive case for a pure market economy resting on the observation that "men act" in Man, Economy, and State and then in The Ethics of Liberty he explained the relationship between economics and ethics that is grounded in the concept of property. Rothbard teaches that economics can provide data and knowledge for a libertarian position, but that it cannot morally validate that political philosophy. Insisting that economics, as a science, is value-free, he contends that an ethical foundation must be established in order to make the case for individual freedom.  
−
* Murray Rothbard devotes a chapter of ''[[Power and Market]]'' to the traditional role of the economist in public life. Rothbard notes that the functions of the economist on the free market differ strongly from those of the economist on the hampered market. "What can the economist do on the purely free market?" Rothbard asks. "He can explain the workings of the market economy (a vital task, especially since the untutored person tends to regard the market economy as sheer chaos), but he can do little else." [http://www.mises.org/story/2318] [http://www.mises.org/rothbard/mes/chap19.asp]
 
  
−
== Major publications ==
+
According to Rothbard, economics and ethics are separate disciplines, complement one another, and are based on the nature of man and the world. He recognizes the need for an ethic to underpin, accompany, and enhance a value-free economics in order to solidify the argument for a free-market society. To make a case for laissez-faire, Rothbard goes beyond economics by formulating a metanormative objective ethics that affirms the essential value of liberty.
−
[[Image:Rothbard-agd.jpg|frame|right|Cover of the [[Mises Institute]]'s 2000 edition of ''America's Great Depression''.]]
 
−
* ''[[Man, Economy, and State]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp Full Text]; ISBN 0-945466-30-7) (1962)
 
−
* ''[[The Panic of 1819]]''. 1962, 2006 edition: ISBN 1-933550-08-2.
 
−
* ''[[America's Great Depression]]''. ISBN 0-945466-05-6. (1963, 1972, 1975, 1983, 2000)
 
−
* ''[[What Has Government Done to Our Money?]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/money.asp Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=92 Audio Book]) ISBN 0-945466-44-7. (1963)
 
−
* ''Economic Depressions: Causes and Cures'' (1969)
 
−
* ''[[Power and Market]]''. ISBN 1-933550-05-8. (1970) (restored to ''Man, Economy, and State'' ISBN 0-945466-30-7, 2004)
 
−
* ''Education: Free and Compulsory''. ISBN 0-945466-22-6. (1972)
 
−
* ''Left and Right, Selected Essays 1954-65'' (1972)
 
−
* ''[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/newliberty.asp Full text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=87 Audio book]) ISBN 0-945466-47-1. (1973, 1978)
 
−
* ''The Essential von Mises'' (1973)
 
−
* ''The Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar''. ISBN 0-945466-34-X. ([http://www.mises.org/story/1829 Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=92 Audio Book]) (1974)
 
−
* ''[[Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays]]'' ISBN 0-945466-23-4. (1974)
 
−
* ''[[Conceived in Liberty]]'' (4 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-26-9. (1975-79)
 
−
* ''Individualism and the Philosophy of the Social Sciences''. ISBN 0-932790-03-8. (1979)
 
−
* ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=95 Audio Book]) ISBN 0-8147-7559-4. (1982)
 
−
* ''The Mystery of Banking''. ISBN 0-943940-04-4. (1983)
 
−
* ''Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero''. {{OCLC|20856420}}. (1988)
 
−
* ''Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor''. [http://www.mises.org/fipandol.asp Full text] (included as Chapter 16 in ''Egalitarianism'' above) (1991)
 
−
* ''The Case Against the Fed''. ISBN 0-945466-17-X. (1994)
 
−
* ''[[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought]]'' (2 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-48-X. (1995)
 
−
* ''Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy''. ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/WSBanks.pdf Full Text]) with an introduction by [[Justin Raimondo]]. (1995)
 
−
* ''Making Economic Sense''. ISBN 0-945466-18-8. (1995, 2006)
 
−
* ''Logic of Action'' (2 vol.) ISBN 1-85898-015-1 and ISBN 1-85898-570-6. (1997)
 
−
* ''The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays''. ISBN 0-945466-21-8. (also by Mises, Hayek, & Haberler)
 
−
* ''Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard''. ([http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Contents.html Full Text].) ISBN 1-883959-02-0. (2000)
 
−
* ''[[History of Money and Banking in the United States]]''. ISBN 0-945466-33-1. (2005)
 
−
* ''[[The Libertarian Forum|The Complete Libertarian Forum]]'' (2 vol.) ([http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/lf/lib-forum-contents.html Full Text]) ISBN 1-933550-02-3. (2006)
 
−
* ''Economic Controversies'' (to be published 2007)
 
−
* ''[[The Betrayal of the American Right]]'' ISBN 978-1-933550-13-8 (2007)
 
  
 +
Separating praxeological economics from the science of ethics, Rothbard bases his ethical system upon the principles of self-ownership and first use–first own. Beginning with axiomatic principles about the nature of man and the world, Rothbard devises a radical dualistic dissociation between political ethics and personal morality.
  
−
== Notes ==
+
In essence, he is distinguishing between the metanormative sphere of politics and law and the normative domain which concerns moral or ethical principles for one's self-fulfillment and flourishing. Rothbard is differentiating between natural rights and the morality or immorality of the exercise of those rights. There is a critical distinction between the right to take a particular action and the morality of that action.
−
<references/>
+
 
 +
Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty is not a prescription for personal morality. Instead, in it he concentrates on the political dimension of social relations by constructing a framework of political philosophy that only expresses what ought to be permitted and not what is desirable or proper.
 +
Rothbard's goal was to develop the branch of natural law that involves natural rights and that pertains to the political realm. He was concerned with building a system of rules consistent with social cooperation, interpersonal conduct, and the maintenance and facilitation of human life.
 +
 
 +
Rothbard's libertarian ethic considers nonaggression to be an absolute principle prior to any foundation for personal morality. In other words, he separates the form of human liberty from any specific noncoercive context in which a person's liberty is used. Rothbard is morally neutral with respect to the particular values and goals at which a person aims as long as the individual does not initiate the use of force or fraud against other people. Although Rothbard realized the importance of an individual's personal moral values, he viewed them as separate from, but dependent upon, the institution of a libertarian social order ( Rothbard, 1975. )
 +
 
 +
Rothbard deduces the entire body of a libertarian law code including the laws of appropriation, contract, and punishment. This nonstatist code of nonaggression establishes the framework for a competitive method regarding the furnishing of legal, defense, and judicial services.
 +
 
 +
One of his most fascinating quotes  on the above three issues is this:
 +
 
 +
"…..It is also important for the State to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to any outcropping of what is now called 'a conspiracy theory of history.' For a search for 'conspiracies,' as misguided as the results often are, means a search for motives, and an attribution of individual responsibility for the historical misdeeds of ruling elites. If, however, any tyranny or venality, or aggressive war imposed by the State was brought about not by particular State rulers but by mysterious and arcane 'social forces,' or by the imperfect state of the world — or if, in some way, everyone was guilty — then there is no point in anyone's becoming indignant or rising up against such misdeeds. Furthermore, a discrediting of 'conspiracy theories' will make the subjects more likely to believe the 'general welfare' reasons that are invariably put forth by the modern State for engaging in aggressive actions…..." ( Rothbart, 1975.)
 +
 
 +
====Comparing the Ideas of Rothbard and [[Rand]]====
 +
 
 +
Both Murray Rothbard and [[Ayn Rand]] were concerned with the nature of man and the world, natural law, natural rights, and a rational ethics based on man's nature and discovered through reason. They also agreed that the purpose of political philosophy and ethics is the promotion of productive human life on earth. In addition, both adopted, to a great extent, Lockean natural rights perspectives and arguments that legitimize private property. Additionally, they both disagreed with Mises' epistemological foundations and on very similar grounds.
 +
 
 +
Both Rothbard and Rand endeavored to determine the proper rules for a rational society by using reason to examine the nature of human life and the world and by employing logical deductions to ascertain what these natures suggest. They agreed with respect to the volitional nature of rational human consciousness, a man's innate right of self-ownership, and the metanormative necessity of noncoercive mutual consent. Both thus subscribed to the nonaggression principle and to the right of self-defense.
 +
 
 +
Rothbard and Rand did not agree, however, on the nature of (or need for) government. They disagreed with respect to the practical applications of their similar philosophies. Rejecting Rand's idea of a constitutionally-limited representative government, Rothbard believed that their shared doctrines entailed a zero-government or anarcho-capitalist framework based on voluntarism, free exchange, and peace.
 +
 
 +
Rothbard and Rand subscribed to different forms of metanormative libertarian politics – Rothbard to anarcho-capitalism and Rand to a minimal state. Unlike Rand, Rothbard ended his ethics at the metanormative level. Rand, on the other hand, advocated a minimal state form of libertarian politics based on the fuller foundation of Objectivism through which she attempted to supply an objective basis for values and virtues in human existence. Of course, Rothbard did discuss the separate importance of a rational personal morality, stated that he agreed essentially with most of Rand's philosophy, and suggested his inclination toward a Randian ethical framework. The writings of Murray Rothbard, much like those of Carl Menger, the founder of Austrian economics, have done a great deal toward building a bridge between Austrian economics and Objectivism.
 +
==History based on banking and welfare policies==
 +
===Welfare economics and banking===
 +
One of  Rothbard’s masterly work was far from exhausting  contributions to economic theory. In a major paper, “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics” (1956), he showed that if one takes seriously the fact that utility is ordinal and not cardinal, then the anti-market views of most modern welfare economists must be abandoned. Strict application of demonstrated preference allows one to say that the participants to a voluntary exchange expect ex ante to benefit. Further than this, the economist, so long as he remains value-free, cannot go. His main papers on economic theory are available in the posthumously published two-volume collection The Logic of Action (1997).
 +
====Hoover revisionism====
 +
In making this argument, Rothbard became a pioneer in “Hoover revisionism.” Contrary to the myths promoted by Hoover himself and his acolytes, Hoover was not an opponent of big government. Quite the contrary, the economic policies of the “ Engineer in Politics” prefigured the New Rothbard devoted close attention to monetary theory. Here he emphasized the virtues of the classical gold standard and supported 100% reserve banking. This system, he held, would prevent the credit expansion that, according to the Austrian theory of the business cycle developed by Mises and Friedrich Hayek, led to inevitable depression. He summarized his views for the general public in the often-reprinted pamphlet What Has Government Done to Our Money? (1964) and also wrote a textbook, The Mystery of Banking (1983).
 +
Rothbard showed the illumination that Austrian theory could bring to economic history in America’s Great Depression (1963). Far from being a proof of the failures of unregulated capitalism, the 1929 Depression illustrates rather the dangers of government interference with the economy. The economic collapse came as a necessary correction to the artificial boom induced by the Federal Reserve System’s monetary expansion during the 1920s. The attempts by the government to “cure” the downturn served only to make matters worse.
 +
Rothbard’s view of Hoover is now widely accepted.
 +
====History made by banking policies====
 +
For Rothbard, banking policy was a key to American economic history. Like Michelet, he believed that history is a resurrection of the flesh; and his discussions are no dry-as-dust presentations of statistics. He was always concerned to identify the particular actors and interests behind historical decisions. The struggle between the competing Morgan and Rockefeller banking circles figures again and again in his articles in this field, collected in his A History of Money and Banking in the United States (1999).
 +
Rothbard ranged far beyond economics in his historical work. In a four-volume series, Conceived in Liberty, (1975-1979) he presented a detailed account of American colonial history that stressed the libertarian antecedents of the American Revolution. As usual, he challenged mainstream opinion. He had little use for New England Puritanism, and the virtues and military leadership of George Washington did not impress him. For Rothbard, the Articles of Confederation were not an overly weak arrangement that needed to be replaced by the more centrally focused Constitution. Quite the contrary, the Articles themselves allowed too much central control.
 +
Although Rothbard usually found himself in close agreement with Mises, in one area he maintained that Mises was mistaken. Mises contended that ethical judgments were subjective: ultimate ends are not subject to rational assessment. Rothbard dissented, maintaining that an objective ethics could be founded on the requirements of human nature. His approach, based on his study of Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, is presented in his major work The Ethics of Liberty (1982), his major study of political philosophy.
 +
In his system of political ethics, self-ownership is the basic principle. Given a robust conception of self-ownership, a compulsory government monopoly of protective services is illegitimate; and Rothbard endeavors to refute the arguments to the contrary of supporters of a minimal state, Robert Nozick chief among them. He contributes important clarifications to problems of libertarian legal theory, such as the nature of contracts and the appropriate standard of punishment. He explains why Mises’s instrumental argument for the market does not fully succeed, though he finds much of value in it; and he criticizes in careful detail Hayek’s view of the rule of law.
 +
====Rejection of Marxian approach====
 +
Rothbard modified the famous dictum of Marx: he wished both to understand and change the world. He endeavored to apply the ideas he had developed in his theoretical work to current politics and to bring libertarian views to the attention of the general public. One issue for him stood foremost. Like Randolph Bourne, he maintained that “war is the health of the state”; he accordingly opposed an aggressive foreign policy. In his, probably  most influential book  ( Rothbard,  1995 ) , Rothbard crisply summarizes his  judgments on a couple of  Marxian concepts. "'Alienation', to Marx, bears no relation to the  fashionable prattle of late twentieth century Marxoid intellectuals ( Rothbard, 19995, vol 2, p. 349). Regarding the material dialectic, "…….It is difficult  to state this position without rejecting it immediately as drivel….”( ibid. p. 377 )
 +
 
 +
 
 +
===Trying to rejuvenate Austrian policy via Libertarian approach===
 +
The situation was quite otherwise with postwar conservatism. Although Rothbard was an early contributor to William Buckley’s National Review, he rejected the aggressive pursuit of the Cold War advocated by Buckley and such members of his editorial staff as James Burnham and Frank S. Meyer. He broke with these self-styled conservatives and thereafter became one of their strongest opponents. For similar reasons, he condemned their neoconservative successors. He followed a pragmatic policy of temporary alliances with whatever groups were, at a given time, opposed to militarism and foreign adventures. He set forward the basis for his political stance in a key essay, “Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty”. This appeared in an important scholarly journal, Left and Right, which he established. This contained major essays on revisionist history and foreign policy, but unfortunately lasted only from 1965-1968.
 +
In an effort to widen the influence of libertarian thought in the academic world, Rothbard founded the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1977. The journal began auspiciously with a symposium on Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Down to the present, it has remained the most important journal hospitable to libertarian ideas.
 +
Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics, to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
 +
In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in Afghanistan or the sources of investment in oil in the Middle East, he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard (2000). Another journal that he founded, The Libertarian Forum, provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in For A New Liberty (1973).
 +
==Rothbard latest  and posthumous work==
 +
Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics, to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
 +
In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in Afghanistan or the sources of investment in oil in the Middle East, he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard ( Rothbard, 2000).
 +
Another journal that he founded, The Libertarian Forum, provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in For A New Liberty (1973).
 +
===Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics===
 +
One last academic triumph remained for Rothbard, though sadly it appeared only after his death. In two massive volumes, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics ( Rothbard, 1995), he presented a minutely detailed and erudite account of the history of economic theory. Adam Smith, contrary to general belief, was not the founder of modern economics. His defense of a labor theory of value, modified and continued by his Ricardian successors, shunted economics onto the wrong path. The heroes of Rothbard’s study were the Spanish scholastics, who long before Smith had developed a subjective theory of value, and such later figures as Cantillon, Turgot, and Say. He dissects the heretical religious thought that prefigured Marxism and gives a mordant portrayal of the personality and thought of John Stuart Mill.
 +
In other words, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on). But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective construct.
 +
Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending and interest payments over the course of a thousand years.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Bibliography==
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N. "Ludwig von Mises and the Paradigm for Our Age," Modern Age, Fall, 1971, pp.370-379.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray,N., In Defense of 'Extreme Apriorism," Southern Economic Journal, January, 1957,314-320.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray, N, ,  For a New Liberty, Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 6
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray, N, Conceived in Liberty, (Volume Two), Arlington House, New Rochelle, N.Y., 1975, p.9.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray, America’s Great Depression, Sheed and Ward, Kansas City, MO, 1975
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray, N., "Praxeology: The Methodology of Austrian Economics," in: Edwin Dolan (ed.), The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics, Sheed and Ward, Kansas City, 1976.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N., "Introduction,", in: Egalitarianism As a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays., Libertarian Review Press, Washington, D.C.: 1974,  p.ix-x.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard Murray, N., Ethics of Liberty. Atlantic Highland, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1982, v.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N., For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Revised Edition, Fox & Wilkes, San Francisco, 1994, p.321.
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N., Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing (March 1995)
 +
 
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N., History of Money and Banking in the United States, ISBN 0-945466-33-1, 2005
 +
 
 +
*Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard. (Full Text.) ISBN 1-883959-02-0., 2000
 +
*Rothbard, Murray N., Man, Economy and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, Nash, Los Angeles 1962.
  
 
== References ==
 
== References ==
−
* [[David Gordon|Gordon, David]]. ''The Essential Rothbard'' Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition. February 26, 2007. ISBN 1933550104
+
 
−
* [[Justin Raimondo|Raimondo, Justin]]. ''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard''. [[Prometheus Books]]. July 2000. ISBN 1-57392-809-7
+
*[[David Gordon|Gordon, David]]. ''The Essential Rothbard'' Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition. February 26, 2007. ISBN 1933550104
−
* ''Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty'' [http://www.mises.org/story/910 Full text] by Murray Rothbard. Spring 1965. (Included as Chapter 2 in ''Egalitarianism'' above.)
+
*[[Justin Raimondo|Raimondo, Justin]]. ''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard''. [[Prometheus Books]]. July 2000. ISBN 1-57392-809-7
 +
*''Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty'' [http://www.mises.org/story/910 Full text] by Murray Rothbard. Spring 1965. (Included as Chapter 2 in ''Egalitarianism'' above.)
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
  
 
== External links ==
 
== External links ==

Revision as of 12:48, 13 May 2008

Rothbard circa 1955

Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995), a scholar of extraordinary range, made major contributions to economics, history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He developed and extended the Austrian economics of Ludwig von Mises, in whose seminar he was a main participant for many years. He established himself as the principal Austrian theorist in the latter half of the twentieth century and applied Austrian analysis to historical topics such as the Great Depression of 1929 and the history of American banking. Rothbard was no ivory-tower scholar, interested only in academic controversies. Quite the contrary, he combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty. He developed a unique synthesis that combined themes from nineteenth-century American individualists such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker with Austrian economics. A new political philosophy was the result, and Rothbard devoted his remarkable intellectual energy, over a period of some forty-five years, to developing and promoting his style of libertarianism. In doing so, he became a major American public intellectual. In forty-five years of scholarship and activism, Rothbard produced over two dozen books and thousands of articles that made sense of the world from a radical individualist perspective. In doing so, it is no exaggeration to say that Rothbard created the modern libertarian movement. Specifically, he refined and fused together:

  • natural law theory, using a basic Aristotelian or Randian approach;
  • the radical civil libertarianism of 19th century individualist-anarchists, especially Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker;
  • the free market philosophy of Austrian economists, in particular Ludwig von Mises, into which he incorporated sweeping economic histories; and,
  • the foreign policy of the American Old Right – that is, isolationism.


Biography

Murray Rothbard was born March 2, 1926, the son of David and Rae Rothbard. He was a brilliant student even as a young child; and his academic record at Columbia University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, was stellar. In the Columbia economics department, Rothbard did not receive any instruction in Austrian economics, and Mises was no more than a name to him. In a course on price theory given by George Stigler, however, he encountered arguments against such then popular measures as price and rent control. These arguments greatly appealed to him; and he wrote to the publisher of a pamphlet that Stigler and Milton Friedman had written on rent control. The publisher in question was the Foundation for Economic Education; and visits to this group’s headquarters led Rothbard to a meeting with Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard was at once attracted to Mises’s laissez-faire economics, and when Mises’s masterwork Human Action appeared in 1949, it made a great impression on him. He was henceforward a praxeologist: here in Mises’s treatise was the consistent and rigorous defense of a free economy for which he had long been in search. He soon became an active member of Mises’s seminar at New York University. In the late 1950s, Rothbard was briefly involved with Ayn Rand's Objectivism, but later had a falling out. Meanwhile, he continued his graduate studies at Columbia, working toward his Ph.D. His mentor was the eminent economic historian Joseph Dorfman, and Rothbard received the degree in 1956, with a thesis on The Panic of 1819 that remains a standard work. On 16 January 1953, he married JoAnn Schumacher in New York City. Rothbard soon attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, the main group that supported classical liberal scholars in the 1950s and early 1960s. He began a project to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a fashion suitable for college students; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises’s approval. As Rothbard continued his work, he transformed the project. The result, Man, Economy, and State (1962), was a central work of Austrian economics. During the 1970s and '80s, Rothbard was active in the Libertarian Party. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics: from 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus and opposing the "low tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 presidential candidate Ed Clark and Cato Institute president Edward H Crane III.

He split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention. In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-Cold War right. He was the founding president of the conservative-libertarian John Randolph Club and supported the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan in 1992. However, prior to his death in Manhattan of a heart attack, Rothbard had, eventually, become disillusioned with the Buchanan movement. He died in 1995.

Rothbard’s main works

Murray Rothbard was a grand system builder. In his monumental Man, Economy, and State (1962), Rothbard continued, embodied, and extended Ludwig von Mises' methodological approach of praxeology to economics. His magnum opus was modeled after Mises' Human Action and, for the most part, was a massive restatement, defense, and development of the Misesian praxeological tradition.


Rothbard followed up and complemented Man, Economy, and State with his brilliant The Ethics of Liberty (1982) in which he provided the foundation for his metanormative ethical theory. Exhibiting an architectonic character, these two works form an integrated system of philosophy. His main scientific output could be, therefore and for the sake of simplification, defined in the three main issues and one, that appeared, as a important issue, posthumously.


Praxeology

In a 1971 article in Modern Age, Murray Rothbard declared that Mises' work provides us with an economic paradigm grounded in the nature of man and in individual choice. Rothbard explains that Mises' paradigm furnishes economics in a systematic, integrated form that can serve as a correct alternative to the crisis situation that modern economics has engendered. According to Rothbard, it is time for us to adopt this paradigm in all of its facets ( Rothbard, 1971.)

Like Mises, Rothbard begins with the axiom that human beings act and believes that all of economic theory can be logically deduced from this starting point. Committed to the praxeological method, Rothbard's writings are characterized by value-free deductive reasoning, abstract universal principles, and methodological individualism. He agrees with Mises that the basic test of economic theory is the truth of the premise and the logical chain of reasoning involved. By setting out from the undeniable fact that a person acts, Rothbard establishes economics as a logic of action.

Rothbard defends Mises' methodology but goes on to construct his own edifice of Austrian economic theory. Although he embraced nearly all of Mises' economics, Rothbard could not accept Mises' Kantian extreme aprioristic position in epistemology. Mises held that the axiom of human action was true a priori to human experience and was, in fact, a synthetic a priori category. Mises considered the action axiom to be a law of thought and thus a categorical truth prior to all human experience.

Murray Rothbard agreed that the action axiom is universally true and self-evident but argued that a person becomes aware of that axiom and its subsidiary axioms through experience in the world. A person begins with concrete human experience and then moves toward reflection. Once a person forms the basic axioms and concepts from his experiences with the world and from his reflections upon those experiences, he does not need to resort to external experience to validate an economic hypothesis. Instead, deductive reasoning from sound basics will validate it.

Rothbard, working within an Aristotelian, Thomistic, or Mengerian tradition, justified the praxeological action axiom as a law of reality that is empirical rather than a priori.

Of course, this is not the empiricism embraced by positivists. This kind of empirical knowledge rests on universal inner or reflective experience in addition to external physical experience. This type of empirical knowledge consists of a general knowledge of human action that would be considered to be antecedent to the complex historical events that mainstream economists to try to explain. The action axiom is empirical in the sense that it is self-evidently true once stated. It is not empirically falsifiable in the positivist sense. It is empirical but it is not based on empiricism as practiced by today's economics profession. Praxeological statements cannot be subjected to any empirical assessment whether it is falsificationist or verificationist.

In a 1957 article in the Southern Economic Journal, Rothbard states that it is a waste of time to argue or try to determine how the truth of the action axiom is obtained. He explains that the all important fact is that the axiom is self-evidently true for all people, at all places, at all times, and that it could not even conceivably be violated. Rothbard was not concerned with the controversy over the empirical status of the praxeological axiom. Whether it was a law of thought as Mises maintained or a law of reality as Rothbard himself contended, the axiom would be no less certain because the axiom need only to be stated to become at once self-evident. In Rothbard's words: “……Whether we consider the Axiom "a priori" or "empirical" depends on our ultimate philosophical position. Professor Mises, in the neo-Kantian tradition, considers this axiom a law of thought and therefore a categorical truth a priori to all experience. My own epistemological position rests on Aristotle and St. Thomas rather than Kant, and hence I would interpret the proposition differently. I would consider the axiom a law of reality rather than a law of thought, and hence "empirical" rather than "a priori." But it should be obvious that this type of "empiricism" is so out of step with modern empiricism that I may just as well continue to call it a priori for present purposes. For (1) it is a law of reality that is not conceivably falsifiable, and yet is empirically meaningful and true; (2) it rests on universal inner experience, and not simply on external experience, that is, its evidence is reflective rather than physical; and (3) it is clearly a priori to complex historical events……..” ( Rothbard, 1957) Rothbard nevertheless continued to endorse Mises' monumental, integrated, and systematic treatise, Human Action, as a complete and true paradigm based on the nature of man and individual choice. Although he disagrees with Mises' epistemology, he does agree that Mises' praxeological economics appropriately begins with, and verbally deduces logical implications from, the fact that individuals act. Rothbard contends that it's time for Mises' paradigm to be embraced if we are to find our way out of the methodological and political problems of the modern world ( Rothbard, 1962 )

The Aristotelian, neo-Thomistic and natural-law-oriented Rothbard refers to laws of reality that the mind apprehends by examining and adducing the facts of the real world. Conception is a way of comprehending real things. It follows that perception and experience are not the products of a synthetic a priori process but rather are apprehensions whose structured unity is due to the nature of reality itself. In opposition to Mises, Rothbard contends that the action axiom and its subsidiary axioms are derived from the experience of reality and are therefore radically empirical. These axioms are based on both external experience and universal inner experience. By 1978, Rothbard was stronger in voicing his opposition to Mises' Kantian epistemology: “……Without delving too deeply into the murky waters of epistemology, I would deny, as an Aristotelian and neo-Thomist, any such alleged 'laws of logical structure' that the human mind necessarily imposes on the chaotic structure of reality. Instead, I would call all such laws "laws of reality," which the mind apprehends from investigating and collating the facts of the real world. My view is that the fundamental axiom and subsidiary axioms are derived from the experience of reality and are therefore in the broadest sense empirical. I would agree with the Aristotelian realist view that its doctrine is radically empirical, far more so than the post-Humean empiricism which is dominant in modern philosophy…..”( Rothbard, 1976.) But Rothbard has not received sufficient credit for the monumental task of integration that he achieved with such elegance. There are a number of reasons for this oversight. One of them is the short shrift that academia gives to system-building in preference to extreme specialization within disciplines that are already carefully defined. Rothbard once complained: "…..Probably the most common question that has been hurled at me – in some exasperation – over the years is: 'Why don't you stick to economics?'……." Calling the question a "said reflection on the hyperspecialization among intellectuals," Rothbard continued, "...this syndrome has been carried so far that they scorn any attention to politico-economic problems as a demeaning and unclean impurity..." ( Rothbard, 1974.)


Anarcho-Capitalism

Rothbard was totally committed to the praxeological method. In fact, he thought that Mises was not sufficiently thoroughgoing or revolutionary enough with respect to his praxeological deductions. By consistently taking the praxeological path in economics, Rothbard arrives at the desirability of a pure anarcho-capitalist society. He convincingly argues that a stateless society is the only society totally consonant with natural rights to person and property.

For Rothbard:

  • (1) freedom means private property, consent, and contract. It follows that the institutions and projects of a legitimate society stem from consensual agreements between property owners. Rothbard endorsed private property anarchism because he could not reconcile a coercive monopoly government with men's natural rights to liberty and legitimately acquired property, and
  • (2) the state cannot be defended on praxeological or moral grounds. He systematizes a fully consistent argument against government intervention in human pursuits in any form or circumstances. Rothbard demonstrates that there exists no proper role for the State by explaining how market enterprises or associations can supply any good or service desired by individuals. Private companies and voluntary associations can do whatever needs to be accomplished. The market can produce all goods and services including defense, security, and arbitration activities.


Ethics

Rothbard produced a system of political and social philosophy based on economics and ethics as its foundations. First, he presented an exhaustive case for a pure market economy resting on the observation that "men act" in Man, Economy, and State and then in The Ethics of Liberty he explained the relationship between economics and ethics that is grounded in the concept of property. Rothbard teaches that economics can provide data and knowledge for a libertarian position, but that it cannot morally validate that political philosophy. Insisting that economics, as a science, is value-free, he contends that an ethical foundation must be established in order to make the case for individual freedom.

According to Rothbard, economics and ethics are separate disciplines, complement one another, and are based on the nature of man and the world. He recognizes the need for an ethic to underpin, accompany, and enhance a value-free economics in order to solidify the argument for a free-market society. To make a case for laissez-faire, Rothbard goes beyond economics by formulating a metanormative objective ethics that affirms the essential value of liberty.

Separating praxeological economics from the science of ethics, Rothbard bases his ethical system upon the principles of self-ownership and first use–first own. Beginning with axiomatic principles about the nature of man and the world, Rothbard devises a radical dualistic dissociation between political ethics and personal morality.

In essence, he is distinguishing between the metanormative sphere of politics and law and the normative domain which concerns moral or ethical principles for one's self-fulfillment and flourishing. Rothbard is differentiating between natural rights and the morality or immorality of the exercise of those rights. There is a critical distinction between the right to take a particular action and the morality of that action.

Rothbard's The Ethics of Liberty is not a prescription for personal morality. Instead, in it he concentrates on the political dimension of social relations by constructing a framework of political philosophy that only expresses what ought to be permitted and not what is desirable or proper. Rothbard's goal was to develop the branch of natural law that involves natural rights and that pertains to the political realm. He was concerned with building a system of rules consistent with social cooperation, interpersonal conduct, and the maintenance and facilitation of human life.

Rothbard's libertarian ethic considers nonaggression to be an absolute principle prior to any foundation for personal morality. In other words, he separates the form of human liberty from any specific noncoercive context in which a person's liberty is used. Rothbard is morally neutral with respect to the particular values and goals at which a person aims as long as the individual does not initiate the use of force or fraud against other people. Although Rothbard realized the importance of an individual's personal moral values, he viewed them as separate from, but dependent upon, the institution of a libertarian social order ( Rothbard, 1975. )

Rothbard deduces the entire body of a libertarian law code including the laws of appropriation, contract, and punishment. This nonstatist code of nonaggression establishes the framework for a competitive method regarding the furnishing of legal, defense, and judicial services.

One of his most fascinating quotes on the above three issues is this:

"…..It is also important for the State to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to any outcropping of what is now called 'a conspiracy theory of history.' For a search for 'conspiracies,' as misguided as the results often are, means a search for motives, and an attribution of individual responsibility for the historical misdeeds of ruling elites. If, however, any tyranny or venality, or aggressive war imposed by the State was brought about not by particular State rulers but by mysterious and arcane 'social forces,' or by the imperfect state of the world — or if, in some way, everyone was guilty — then there is no point in anyone's becoming indignant or rising up against such misdeeds. Furthermore, a discrediting of 'conspiracy theories' will make the subjects more likely to believe the 'general welfare' reasons that are invariably put forth by the modern State for engaging in aggressive actions…..." ( Rothbart, 1975.)

Comparing the Ideas of Rothbard and Rand

Both Murray Rothbard and Ayn Rand were concerned with the nature of man and the world, natural law, natural rights, and a rational ethics based on man's nature and discovered through reason. They also agreed that the purpose of political philosophy and ethics is the promotion of productive human life on earth. In addition, both adopted, to a great extent, Lockean natural rights perspectives and arguments that legitimize private property. Additionally, they both disagreed with Mises' epistemological foundations and on very similar grounds.

Both Rothbard and Rand endeavored to determine the proper rules for a rational society by using reason to examine the nature of human life and the world and by employing logical deductions to ascertain what these natures suggest. They agreed with respect to the volitional nature of rational human consciousness, a man's innate right of self-ownership, and the metanormative necessity of noncoercive mutual consent. Both thus subscribed to the nonaggression principle and to the right of self-defense.

Rothbard and Rand did not agree, however, on the nature of (or need for) government. They disagreed with respect to the practical applications of their similar philosophies. Rejecting Rand's idea of a constitutionally-limited representative government, Rothbard believed that their shared doctrines entailed a zero-government or anarcho-capitalist framework based on voluntarism, free exchange, and peace.

Rothbard and Rand subscribed to different forms of metanormative libertarian politics – Rothbard to anarcho-capitalism and Rand to a minimal state. Unlike Rand, Rothbard ended his ethics at the metanormative level. Rand, on the other hand, advocated a minimal state form of libertarian politics based on the fuller foundation of Objectivism through which she attempted to supply an objective basis for values and virtues in human existence. Of course, Rothbard did discuss the separate importance of a rational personal morality, stated that he agreed essentially with most of Rand's philosophy, and suggested his inclination toward a Randian ethical framework. The writings of Murray Rothbard, much like those of Carl Menger, the founder of Austrian economics, have done a great deal toward building a bridge between Austrian economics and Objectivism.

History based on banking and welfare policies

Welfare economics and banking

One of Rothbard’s masterly work was far from exhausting contributions to economic theory. In a major paper, “Toward a Reconstruction of Utility and Welfare Economics” (1956), he showed that if one takes seriously the fact that utility is ordinal and not cardinal, then the anti-market views of most modern welfare economists must be abandoned. Strict application of demonstrated preference allows one to say that the participants to a voluntary exchange expect ex ante to benefit. Further than this, the economist, so long as he remains value-free, cannot go. His main papers on economic theory are available in the posthumously published two-volume collection The Logic of Action (1997).

Hoover revisionism

In making this argument, Rothbard became a pioneer in “Hoover revisionism.” Contrary to the myths promoted by Hoover himself and his acolytes, Hoover was not an opponent of big government. Quite the contrary, the economic policies of the “ Engineer in Politics” prefigured the New Rothbard devoted close attention to monetary theory. Here he emphasized the virtues of the classical gold standard and supported 100% reserve banking. This system, he held, would prevent the credit expansion that, according to the Austrian theory of the business cycle developed by Mises and Friedrich Hayek, led to inevitable depression. He summarized his views for the general public in the often-reprinted pamphlet What Has Government Done to Our Money? (1964) and also wrote a textbook, The Mystery of Banking (1983). Rothbard showed the illumination that Austrian theory could bring to economic history in America’s Great Depression (1963). Far from being a proof of the failures of unregulated capitalism, the 1929 Depression illustrates rather the dangers of government interference with the economy. The economic collapse came as a necessary correction to the artificial boom induced by the Federal Reserve System’s monetary expansion during the 1920s. The attempts by the government to “cure” the downturn served only to make matters worse. Rothbard’s view of Hoover is now widely accepted.

History made by banking policies

For Rothbard, banking policy was a key to American economic history. Like Michelet, he believed that history is a resurrection of the flesh; and his discussions are no dry-as-dust presentations of statistics. He was always concerned to identify the particular actors and interests behind historical decisions. The struggle between the competing Morgan and Rockefeller banking circles figures again and again in his articles in this field, collected in his A History of Money and Banking in the United States (1999). Rothbard ranged far beyond economics in his historical work. In a four-volume series, Conceived in Liberty, (1975-1979) he presented a detailed account of American colonial history that stressed the libertarian antecedents of the American Revolution. As usual, he challenged mainstream opinion. He had little use for New England Puritanism, and the virtues and military leadership of George Washington did not impress him. For Rothbard, the Articles of Confederation were not an overly weak arrangement that needed to be replaced by the more centrally focused Constitution. Quite the contrary, the Articles themselves allowed too much central control. Although Rothbard usually found himself in close agreement with Mises, in one area he maintained that Mises was mistaken. Mises contended that ethical judgments were subjective: ultimate ends are not subject to rational assessment. Rothbard dissented, maintaining that an objective ethics could be founded on the requirements of human nature. His approach, based on his study of Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, is presented in his major work The Ethics of Liberty (1982), his major study of political philosophy. In his system of political ethics, self-ownership is the basic principle. Given a robust conception of self-ownership, a compulsory government monopoly of protective services is illegitimate; and Rothbard endeavors to refute the arguments to the contrary of supporters of a minimal state, Robert Nozick chief among them. He contributes important clarifications to problems of libertarian legal theory, such as the nature of contracts and the appropriate standard of punishment. He explains why Mises’s instrumental argument for the market does not fully succeed, though he finds much of value in it; and he criticizes in careful detail Hayek’s view of the rule of law.

Rejection of Marxian approach

Rothbard modified the famous dictum of Marx: he wished both to understand and change the world. He endeavored to apply the ideas he had developed in his theoretical work to current politics and to bring libertarian views to the attention of the general public. One issue for him stood foremost. Like Randolph Bourne, he maintained that “war is the health of the state”; he accordingly opposed an aggressive foreign policy. In his, probably most influential book ( Rothbard, 1995 ) , Rothbard crisply summarizes his judgments on a couple of Marxian concepts. "'Alienation', to Marx, bears no relation to the fashionable prattle of late twentieth century Marxoid intellectuals ( Rothbard, 19995, vol 2, p. 349). Regarding the material dialectic, "…….It is difficult to state this position without rejecting it immediately as drivel….”( ibid. p. 377 )


Trying to rejuvenate Austrian policy via Libertarian approach

The situation was quite otherwise with postwar conservatism. Although Rothbard was an early contributor to William Buckley’s National Review, he rejected the aggressive pursuit of the Cold War advocated by Buckley and such members of his editorial staff as James Burnham and Frank S. Meyer. He broke with these self-styled conservatives and thereafter became one of their strongest opponents. For similar reasons, he condemned their neoconservative successors. He followed a pragmatic policy of temporary alliances with whatever groups were, at a given time, opposed to militarism and foreign adventures. He set forward the basis for his political stance in a key essay, “Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty”. This appeared in an important scholarly journal, Left and Right, which he established. This contained major essays on revisionist history and foreign policy, but unfortunately lasted only from 1965-1968. In an effort to widen the influence of libertarian thought in the academic world, Rothbard founded the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1977. The journal began auspiciously with a symposium on Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Down to the present, it has remained the most important journal hospitable to libertarian ideas. Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics, to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in Afghanistan or the sources of investment in oil in the Middle East, he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard (2000). Another journal that he founded, The Libertarian Forum, provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in For A New Liberty (1973).

Rothbard latest and posthumous work

Rothbard established in 1987 another journal, the Review of Austrian Economics, to provide a scholarly venue for economists and others interested in Austrian theory. It too is the key journal in its area of specialty. It has continued to the present, after 1997 under the new name Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. In his comments on current events, Rothbard displayed an amazing ability to digest vast quantities of information on whatever subject interested him. Whether, e.g., the question was competing factions in Afghanistan or the sources of investment in oil in the Middle East, he would always have the relevant data at his command. A sample of his columns, taken from the Rockwell Rothbard Report, is available in The Irrepressible Rothbard ( Rothbard, 2000). Another journal that he founded, The Libertarian Forum, provides his topical comments for the period 1969-1984. He presented a comprehensive popular account of libertarianism in For A New Liberty (1973).

Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics

One last academic triumph remained for Rothbard, though sadly it appeared only after his death. In two massive volumes, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics ( Rothbard, 1995), he presented a minutely detailed and erudite account of the history of economic theory. Adam Smith, contrary to general belief, was not the founder of modern economics. His defense of a labor theory of value, modified and continued by his Ricardian successors, shunted economics onto the wrong path. The heroes of Rothbard’s study were the Spanish scholastics, who long before Smith had developed a subjective theory of value, and such later figures as Cantillon, Turgot, and Say. He dissects the heretical religious thought that prefigured Marxism and gives a mordant portrayal of the personality and thought of John Stuart Mill. In other words, Rothbard demonstrated that Adam Smith's economic theories were, in many ways, a comedown from his predecessors in France and Spain. For example, Smith puzzled over the source of value and finally tagged labor as the source (a mistake Marx built on). But for centuries prior, the earliest economists knew that value came from within the human mind. It was a human estimation, not an objective construct. Rothbard was a pioneer in incorporating the sociology of religion into the history of economic ideas. He saw that the advent of Christianity had a huge impact on the theory of the state. He observed the rise of absolutism and theory of nationalism that came with the reformation. He traced the changes in the Western view toward lending and interest payments over the course of a thousand years.


Bibliography

  • Rothbard, Murray N. "Ludwig von Mises and the Paradigm for Our Age," Modern Age, Fall, 1971, pp.370-379.
  • Rothbard, Murray,N., In Defense of 'Extreme Apriorism," Southern Economic Journal, January, 1957,314-320.
  • Rothbard, Murray, N, , For a New Liberty, Macmillan, New York, 1973, p. 6
  • Rothbard, Murray, N, Conceived in Liberty, (Volume Two), Arlington House, New Rochelle, N.Y., 1975, p.9.
  • Rothbard, Murray, America’s Great Depression, Sheed and Ward, Kansas City, MO, 1975
  • Rothbard, Murray, N., "Praxeology: The Methodology of Austrian Economics," in: Edwin Dolan (ed.), The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics, Sheed and Ward, Kansas City, 1976.
  • Rothbard, Murray N., "Introduction,", in: Egalitarianism As a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays., Libertarian Review Press, Washington, D.C.: 1974, p.ix-x.
  • Rothbard Murray, N., Ethics of Liberty. Atlantic Highland, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1982, v.
  • Rothbard, Murray N., For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Revised Edition, Fox & Wilkes, San Francisco, 1994, p.321.
  • Rothbard, Murray N., Economic Thought Before Adam Smith and Classical Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing (March 1995)
  • Rothbard, Murray N., History of Money and Banking in the United States, ISBN 0-945466-33-1, 2005
  • Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard. (Full Text.) ISBN 1-883959-02-0., 2000
  • Rothbard, Murray N., Man, Economy and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, Nash, Los Angeles 1962.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Gordon, David. The Essential Rothbard Ludwig von Mises Institute; 1st edition. February 26, 2007. ISBN 1933550104
  • Raimondo, Justin. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard. Prometheus Books. July 2000. ISBN 1-57392-809-7
  • Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty Full text by Murray Rothbard. Spring 1965. (Included as Chapter 2 in Egalitarianism above.)


External links

All links retrieved November 2, 2007.

Austrian economists

Carl Menger · Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk · Friedrich von Wieser · Ludwig von Mises · Friedrich August von Hayek · Ludwig Lachmann · Henry Hazlitt · George Reisman  · Hans F. Sennholz · Israel Kirzner · Murray Rothbard · Robert Higgs · Walter Block · Hans-Hermann Hoppe · Joseph T. Salerno  · Jesus Huerta de Soto  · Jörg Guido Hülsmann  · Mark Thornton · Robert P. Murphy

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Murray_Rothbard&oldid=708241

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki