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Bill Conerly's avatar

There is an unfortunate tendency among some libertarians to attack any idea that could form a building block for a statist argument. (I've probably done it myself.) I've been criticized for using empirical analysis in economics, because that might enable central planning. But their criticisms are usually poorly founded, and my work has withstood a market test. (Greedy businesses pay me for my service.)

But this motivation for attack is common to many ideologies. Many leftists would attack spontaneous order because it's a building block to free market thought.

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Joe Mintoff's avatar

I don't think you need to take utilitarianism as a premise in order to get libertarianism as a conclusion, which is a good thing, since, in my view, people's views are quite distant from utilitarianism (which, my main complaint, is also quite alien to the spirit of libertarianism—since it asserts that what we should do is determined by some total good of which one's own good is a minute part).

At the very closest, people "substantially value" the idea that /they/ should act to maximize total (or average) utility /of their nearest and dearest/, and, if they are prepared to universalize this, that individuals should do the same for /their/ nearest and dearest. This is more like egoism than utilitarianism (and, we may note, more in the spirit of libertarianism—I wish to be left alone to live my life as I think best, and I am prepared to extend the same right to others).

But it doesn't matter for your overall conclusion. For suppose, as you argue, that libertarian political institutions maximize total utility. Well, since all people basically seek only their own good (and that of their nearest and dearest), and libertarian institutions do the greatest good for the greatest number, then the greatest number of people have good reason to support liberatarian policies. The argument is pretty much the same, but the rhetoric different.

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