I decided to move some discussion from this post up to the top level here. Specifically, Watoosh wrote: "Well, if violence is defined as initiation of force (which, of course, presupposes certain property rights), then I think Rockwell is correct..." Well, if we define cats as elephants, then many people keep elephants in their house. More seriously, firstly, violence is not usually defined that way. It's defined as, you know, violence, so that, say, someone may respond violently or non-violently to someone who aggresses against them. Otherwise, it would make no sense to say, for instance, "He punched me, but I did not stoop to violence in response." And, secondly, the libertarian usage of "initiation of force" is very offbeat. If I wander onto someone's meadow, most people would not say I had "initiated force" -- I mean, sure, I used "force" against the earth to push off walking, but that's not force directed against...
Are you saying people don't like mises because he is:
ReplyDelete1. Too blunt?
2. His tone is too sure and not acceptable in academia?
3. He is wrong (in too many academic's opinion)?
Right. Basically, "Who the heck does this economist think he is, lecturing mathematicians on probability and physicists on what the uncertainty principle 'really' means?!"
ReplyDeleteWell, I can totally see them doing that...but, is he right is a more important question they should be asking.
ReplyDeleteWe must not forget that Mises' brother, Richard, was a mathematician--perhaps a little extra jab at a sibling?
ReplyDeleteAnd Ludwig may have been kind to his brother. At Wikipeda, I just came across this quote about Richard by one, Aleksander Ostrowski:
ReplyDeleteBecause of his dynamic personality his occasional major blunders were somehow tolerated. One has even forgiven him his theory of probability.