A Gift to My Libertarian Friends
This article is crap.
Now you can write, "Even Gene Callahan, a critic of libertarianism, acknowledges that Metcalf's article on Nozick is 'crap.'"
UPDATE: From Steve Horwitz: "But one point that hasn't been made enough is the way in which Metcalf and some of his defenders including Jonathan Chait are abusing and misreading the famous Wilt Chamberlain example in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. The point of that example was NOT to justify all forms of wealth acquisition and not even voluntary ones as Chait seems to think. It's not an exercise in justification, moral or otherwise. The point was to demonstrate a problem with what Nozick called 'pattern' theories of justice such as that of Rawls."
Yes, exactly right. Metcalf completely botched (or deliberately misrepresented?) the purpose of that example.
Now you can write, "Even Gene Callahan, a critic of libertarianism, acknowledges that Metcalf's article on Nozick is 'crap.'"
UPDATE: From Steve Horwitz: "But one point that hasn't been made enough is the way in which Metcalf and some of his defenders including Jonathan Chait are abusing and misreading the famous Wilt Chamberlain example in Anarchy, State, and Utopia. The point of that example was NOT to justify all forms of wealth acquisition and not even voluntary ones as Chait seems to think. It's not an exercise in justification, moral or otherwise. The point was to demonstrate a problem with what Nozick called 'pattern' theories of justice such as that of Rawls."
Yes, exactly right. Metcalf completely botched (or deliberately misrepresented?) the purpose of that example.
I loved the outrage in the opening paragraph.
ReplyDeleteHow DARE those people avoid discussing politics or stay out of it?!
The article was inspired not by an incident of an alleged libertarian speaking too much, but one of him speaking too little.