Did Adam Smith—celebrated hero of free trade—make a big exception for reasons of national defense? Would he support the Jones ...

A “presumption of X” signifies that X is taken to be the case without requiring argument or evidence to support it. The burden of its rebuttal is on the challenger of the presumption. The presumption ...

Crypto- anarchism is a philosophy whose advocates think technology can assist them in creating communities based on consent rather than coercion. Crypto- anarchists wish to be free from state ...

The socialist calculation debate revolves around the question of whether central planners can, at least in principle, make the economic calculations necessary to achieve the rational, efficient ...

Once a political party knows it can win elections with a merely mid- 40s percent share of the two- party vote, any challenge to that system can start to feel like an existential threat. At the same ...

Born in England while Puritans were persecuted, Williams hopped aboard a ship to America in an attempt to find a place where freedom of religion was a guaranteed right. Unable to find a home free of ...

By 1776 they were no longer merely at the brink of revolution. Shots had been fired at both Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts and the colonial militias had fought a major engagement with the ...

Today Cicero is often read only by classical scholars and reluctant students, which is a great shame because his life and philosophy reflect a sort of proto- liberalism that came to influence a wide ...

Retributive punishment refers to punishment for a crime that is carried out for retributive reasons and is justified if there really are good retributive reasons for punishing crime. To get a clear ...

Throughout history, the state has typically monopolized the issuance of money. The various royal mints were once the exclusive sources of silver and gold coins, whereas today the national central ...

Free trade means the exchange of goods and services across international borders, unhindered by government tariffs, quotas, or other restrictions. Since the publication of The Wealth of Nations by ...

The idea of providing everyone with a basic income has evolved over the last half- century from a pipe dream into a serious proposal with broad, cross- ideological support. However, only some ...