The freedom of peaceful action : on the origin of individual rights / Stuart K. Hayashi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayashi, Stuart, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Individualism.

Civil rights.

Physical Description:

xiii, 465 pages ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland ; Plymouth, United Kingdom : Lexington Books, [2014]

Summary:

The Freedom of Peaceful Action, On the Origin of Individual Rights is the first installment of The Nature of Liberty trilogy, which makes a philosophic case for laissez-faire capitalism against calls for greater government regulation and control. The trilogy provides the purely secular basis for the individual's rights to life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of happiness as championed by the U.S. Founding Fathers. Inspired by such thinkers in the Enlightenment tradition as John Locke, Herbert Spencer, and Ayn Rand, The Nature of Liberty shows that such individual rights are not arbitrary beliefs but are institutions of great practical value, making survival and long-term fulfillment possible to the degree that society recognizes such right. The trilogy demonstrates the beneficence of the individual-rights approach by citing discoveries in the nascent discipline of evolutionary psychology. Although the conclusions of evolutionary psychology have been long considered to be at odds with the philosophies of individualism and unfettered markets, The Nature of Liberty presents a reconciliation that evinces their ultimate compatibility, as various important findings of evolutionary psychology, being logically applied, confirm much of what political-economic liberalization's proponents have been saying for centuries. Moreover, proceeding from the foundations provided by Rand, this work argues that the structure of governance most suited to prosperity is commensurately the most moral and humane approach as well. The Freedom of Peaceful Action focuses on the methodological justification for individual rights. Starting from a defense of the efficacy of observational rationality against criticisms from Immanuel Kant and Karl Popper, it explains how support for free enterprise results from the consistent application of reason to deciphering human nature. This installment argues that any social system that wishes for its citizens to thrive must take human nature into account, and that an accounting of human nature reveals that a system of maximum autonomy and property protection is the one must conducive to peace and personal well-being. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Inductive Reason: The Only Oracle of Man 1

1 Why Free-Market Advocates Need Objectivism 3

2 Inductive Reason 15

3 The Unity of Reality 29

4 Coming to Our Senses 49

5 Ascertaining Causal Connections 63

6 Absolving Absolutes from Ridicule 75

7 Contextual Absolutes 93

8 The Biological Basis of Morality 113

II The Anatomy of Government 133

9 The Rule of Peace 135

10 Reclaiming Liberalism 153

11 The Swarm of Voters 167

12 "The State of Nature" and the Nature of the State 185

13 The Invisible Gun 205

14 Regulation as Spoliation 219

15 Contracts, Real Versus Imaginary 243

16 By Definition, You Cannot Consent to Being Coercively Taxed 259

17 The Contractual Financing of the Ideal State 279

18 The Peaceful Sector and the Violence Sector 293

19 GODvernment 311

20 The Revolution Will Be Privatized 329

21 The Most Vital Privatization 347

22 Savage Predation Against Self-Ownership 361

23 Applying the Principles of Self-Ownership 377.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739186664

0739186663

OCLC:

869527383