Libertarianism Philosophy and History – Study.com

Libertarianism Defined

Larry is a libertarian. Libertarianism is a political philosophy that places the political and social value of personal liberty over all other political values, even those like equality. Liberty is a political concept that means to be free from undue or oppressive restraints on a person's actions, thoughts or beliefs imposed by the State. A person with liberty possesses certain social, political and economic rights protected from improper private and public interference.

Keep in mind that from the standpoint of political thought, liberty is different from freedom. Freedom is, in its purist form, unrestrained action. Liberty is more restrained. For example, while Larry has the liberty of movement, he does not have the liberty to move his fist into someone's face.

Basically, you can think of libertarianism as valuing personal autonomy above all else - to be left alone, free from the coercion of other people, and especially the State. Consequently, Larry and other libertarians are pretty much hostile to all but the bare minimum of government, whose role is simply to prevent coercion and acts of fraud.

While the roots of libertarianism can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries and the writings of philosophers such as John Locke and John Stuart Mill, the modern formulation started in the 1950s. Some contemporary leaders of libertarian political thought include Robert Nozick, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek.

Larry has been pretty politically active as a libertarian and decided to go to a libertarian convention. While at the convention, he was quite surprised to find out that not all libertarians think like he does. In fact, there are different types of libertarian philosophies. Let's take a quick look.

Larry's form of libertarianism is grounded upon natural rights, based in large part on the writings of the English philosopher John Locke. Locke believed that all people had certain rights pursuant to 'natural law,' which are universal principles that govern all human action.

Under natural rights libertarianism, the sole role of the State should be to protect the individual rights of its citizens. In other words, the government's role should be restricted to providing for the personal security of citizens against crime, preventing citizens from being coerced into doing something against their will and ensuring that personal property rights are protected.

Larry meets Charlie at the convention. Charlie adheres to consequentialists libertarianism, which means that Charlie doesn't rely upon a complicated theory of natural rights to support a limited government. Instead, Charlie and other followers of consequentialists libertarianism believe a minimalist government provides for better consequences than a large amount of government intervention. Charlie believes resources are allocated more efficiently through private market transactions and people are better at looking after their own interests than a government. Thus, the consequences of libertarianism lead to a better society overall.

Larry also meets Ayn at the conference. Ayn believes in anarcho-capitalism. Anarcho-capitalists believe that there is no need for even a minimal State. According to Ayn and her fellow anarcho-capitalists, private firms can perform all functions traditionally performed by a government. For example, instead of a police force, people would simply contract with private security firms to provide protection and private court systems to enforce contracts. Even money would be a private affair, where firms would compete for individuals to use their private currencies. This type of society would be based almost entirely on voluntary contractual relations.

Let's review what we've learned. Libertarianism is a political philosophy that has roots in the 18th and 19th centuries but didn't come into its own until the 1950s. Libertarianism holds personal liberty above all other political values. Libertarians advocate for a minimal government that should only protect individual liberty from coercion and fraud.

You can actually divide libertarian theory into a few different schools of thought. Natural rights libertarianism holds personal liberty above all else and believes the government's role should be restricted to protecting that liberty. Consequentialists libertarianism believes that individual choice and markets free of government intervention lead to a better society. Anarcho-capitalists believe that society can function perfectly well without any government whatsoever by relying on voluntary exchanges between individuals and firms.

After this lesson is done, you should be able to:

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Libertarianism Philosophy and History - Study.com