Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers: Unpublished Writings on Hayek, Mises, Strauss, and ... PDF
Preview Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers: Unpublished Writings on Hayek, Mises, Strauss, and ...
M N. R URRAY OTHBARD . P VS THE HILOSOPHERS UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLANYI M N. R URRAY OTHBARD . P VS THE HILOSOPHERS UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLANYI EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY ROBERTA A. MODUGNO LvMI LUDWIG VON MISES © 2009 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ludwig von Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 mises.org ISBN: 978-1-933550-46-6 Contents PREFACE BY DAVID GORDON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii INTRODUCTION: LAW AND NATURE IN THE WORK OF MURRAY N. ROTHBARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Rothbard’s Unpublished Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Rothbard on Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Criticism of the Subjectivism of Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Criticism of Hayek: Historical Rights and Natural Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Criticism of the Concept of Coercion in Hayek . . . . . . . . .38 REVIEWS AND COMMENTS BY MURRAY NEWTON ROTHBARD . . . .47 1. Letter on Rugged Individualism by George B. Cutten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 2. Confidential Memo to the Volker Fund on F.A. Hayek’sConstitution of Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 3. Letter on The Constitution of Liberty by F.A. von Hayek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 4. Review of Lionel Robbins, The Great Depression . . . . .79 5. Letter on The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman by Caroline Robbins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 6. Letter on What is Political Philosophy? by Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 7. Letter on Thoughts on Machiavelliby Leo Strauss . . . .96 8. Letter on On Tyrannyby Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . .102 9. The Symposium on Relativism: A Critique . . . . . . . . .104 10. On Polanyi’s The Great Transformation . . . . . . . . . .121 v MURRAYN. ROTHBARDVS. THEPHILOSOPHERS: UNPUBLISHEDWRITINGS vi ONHAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, ANDPOLYANI CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF MURRAY NEWTON ROTHBARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141 REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151 Selected Writings by Murray N. Rothbard . . . . . . . . . .151 Writings on Murray N. Rothbard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152 Writings of a General Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 P REFACE ROBERTA MODUGNO HAS IN HER scholarly career made a habit of “getting there first.” She wrote the first book in any lan- guage on the thought of Murray Rothbard, Murray N. Roth- bard e l’anarco-capitalismo americano, published by Rubbet- tino in 1998, and she also is the author of the first Italian book on Mary Wollstonecraft’s political thought. In the pres- ent book, she has once more led the way. Murray Rothbard was a prolific scholar, as a mere glance at his bibliography will disclose. But his published books and articles, even including those that have appeared posthu- mously, do not exhaust his scholarly contributions. When he died in January 1995, he left his papers and correspondence to the Mises Institute. The most important of these papers, from the point of view of libertarian scholarship, consist of reports he wrote when he worked for the William Volker Fund. In these reports, Rothbard commented on a wide vari- ety of subjects, including economics, history, political theory, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. Like Terence, Roth- bard could say, “Nothing human is alien to me.” These reports often provide more details of his views on particular points than are available from his published books; in some cases, these reports raise altogether new issues. It is Roberta Modugno’s great merit to have been the first scholar to make some of this material available to the public. After she gained access to the unpublished papers, she pub- lished (also with Rubbettino) a selection of them, translated vii MURRAYN. ROTHBARDVS. THEPHILOSOPHERS: UNPUBLISHEDWRITINGS viii ONHAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, ANDPOLYANI into Italian, in 2005. The present book is the first publica- tion of these papers in their original English. Besides the papers, the book includes Professor Mod- ugno’s scholarly introduction, which stresses Rothbard’s relations to the thought of Leo Strauss and Friedrich von Hayek. In addition, she has provided detailed explanatory notes to the selections. Even experienced students of Rothbard will learn much from this book. His criticism of social Darwinism in the first selection is of classic stature; and he makes a searching crit- icism of Hayek on the rule of law. In his discussion of Car- oline Robbins, his amazing depth of scholarship is present in full force. Although Robbins had just completed the first comprehensive study of British classical liberalism in the eighteenth century, Rothbard was able to correct and add to her findings. The nine selections published here form only a small sample of the unpublished papers; future books will make many more of them available. But Roberta Modugno was there first. DAVID GORDON Ludwig von Mises Institute I NTRODUCTION L N W AW AND ATURE IN THE ORK OF M N. R URRAY OTHBARD
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