Trust: A Definition
“Your confidence that another will act with a necessary degree of reciprocity (mutually beneficial) for the matter at hand, despite the opportunity to act out of an equal degree of self interest.” This definition addresses the spectrum of low trust exchanges to consanguineous interactions to high trust mutual insurance. Most definitions assume an equality of…
Rothbardian Ghetto Ethics As A Parasitic Scam
Rothbard’s ethics are just another a parasitic scam seeking to replace low transaction cost state parasitism, with high transaction cost universal parasitism. Aristocratic Egalitarians (protestants) had it right: universal responsibility for the universal suppression of all involuntary extractions, thereby forcing every living soul to compete in the market for goods and services, where his efforts…
Praxeology Only Seems Confusing, Because Mises and Rothbard Got It Wrong
The diagram below is complex because because praxeology and its contents are incorrectly categorized by Mises. And Rothbard made it worse by exacerbating the initial errors. 1) Philosophy Proper – the entire discipline – is required to describe the logic of human action. Philosophy, if articulated in operational language (the language of science) is the…
An Operational Definition of "Meaning"
Meaning: the experience produced by the interaction between memory and stimuli caused by human action in time. This definition survives criticism even if the action is purely passive observation. All symbols for meaning are constructed from some set of analogies to experience. These constructs evolve through repetition and loading, until their constituent causal relations…
An Operational Definition of “Meaning”
Meaning: the experience produced by the interaction between memory and stimuli caused by human action in time. This definition survives criticism even if the action is purely passive observation. All symbols for meaning are constructed from some set of analogies to experience. These constructs evolve through repetition and loading, until their constituent causal relations…
"Libertarian" Shouldn't Mean "Stupid"
LIBERTARIAN SHOULDN’T MEAN “STUPID” What libertarian means to me is: (a) a preference for liberty above all other political preferences, and (b) that all rights can be reduced to property rights, and (c) that I actively pursue obtaining liberty for myself and other a daily basis by sacrificing my time and effort to pursue it.…
“Libertarian” Shouldn’t Mean “Stupid”
LIBERTARIAN SHOULDN’T MEAN “STUPID” What libertarian means to me is: (a) a preference for liberty above all other political preferences, and (b) that all rights can be reduced to property rights, and (c) that I actively pursue obtaining liberty for myself and other a daily basis by sacrificing my time and effort to pursue it.…
Liberty Without Rothbard's Ghetto: A Return To Aristocracy
[W]hile aristocratic egalitarian liberty is among the greatest inventions in human history, I see rothbardianism as a failed amateurish pseudo philosophical ideology, rejected by all but a meaningless minority, disproven by even the least talented of philosophers, contrary to all evidence in evolutionary biology, experimental psychology, anthropology and history, and economically irrational on praxeological grounds…
Liberty Without Rothbard’s Ghetto: A Return To Aristocracy
[W]hile aristocratic egalitarian liberty is among the greatest inventions in human history, I see rothbardianism as a failed amateurish pseudo philosophical ideology, rejected by all but a meaningless minority, disproven by even the least talented of philosophers, contrary to all evidence in evolutionary biology, experimental psychology, anthropology and history, and economically irrational on praxeological grounds…
American Policy In A Nutshell : Talking About The Carrot of Choice, But Not The Stick of Accountability
AMERICAN POLICY IN A NUTSHELL [A]merican policy (frustratingly) demonstrates rather than explicitly states, that you may have any government you willingly elect. But if you willingly elect a government that does not adhere to the charter of human rights both internally and externally; or if that government acts as a bad citizen in the network…
Choice Words Against Socialism
In the context of intellectual history, the argument against socialism was framed as the viability of the “socialist mode of production”. The central argument against socialism is the impossibility of that mode of production on two points: calculation and incentives – with the debate only over the relative importance of each. Second, it is non-logical…
The N.A.P. Is Insufficient For Suppression Of Demand For The State – In Fact, the NAP Is "Unethical" By Definition
(I wanted to thank Jason Maher for very intelligent comments. But also to respond to criticisms, and perhaps to fill a few gaps.) This post is part of a discussion on Argumentation Ethics. 1) In that thread, my purpose was to illustrate that neither AE, nor performative contradiction, are causal arguments. However, since both correctly…
The N.A.P. Is Insufficient For Suppression Of Demand For The State – In Fact, the NAP Is “Unethical” By Definition
(I wanted to thank Jason Maher for very intelligent comments. But also to respond to criticisms, and perhaps to fill a few gaps.) This post is part of a discussion on Argumentation Ethics. 1) In that thread, my purpose was to illustrate that neither AE, nor performative contradiction, are causal arguments. However, since both correctly…
NAP Fails on Transaction Costs Alone
–“Yes…transaction costs exist. But that simply means that a market can potentially give sub-optimal outcomes. It does nothing to undermine the internal coherence of NAP.”– [I]t does everything to undermine the willingness of individuals to reduce their demand for the state. Science requires external correspondence not internal consistency. Internal consistency is a property of…
Against Ideal Worlds
1) I think it is a philosophical error (or at least naivety, and possibly profound arrogance) to think in terms of ideal worlds. I tend to think in terms of improving the world we live in, without causing externalities that negate the improvement. It is the latter part of that statement that changes philosophy from…
Luxury vs Necessity In Ethics: Parlor Games vs Politics
The difference between the structure of my arguments, and the more common of those in moral philosophy, is one that is common in western philosophy. Because western philosophy was created and developed by its aristocratic classes, and those classes that performed sufficiently to afford the luxury of philosophy, and sought enfranchisement. Namely: necessity. Marx,…
Labor Is Meaningless – Consumers Are Not
Obvious but interesting, is that marxist labor theory of value, and even their supposed social value of ‘labor’ are both in fact valueless and non-logical. But the presence of a ‘consumer’ is not. It’s not that business value labor. It’s that business and capitalists need CUSTOMERS in order to organize production. The challenge in…
Metaphysics vs Science
(worth reading) –“Curt, loved your brief defense of praxeology earlier on (below). This is off subject but like Katherine, I too am curious in what way metaphysics failed and science is now close to triumph. An example or two please? We can go off line if you like.”– Pat Pat, This is the largest and…
The Philosophical Difference Between Necessity for Means vs Preference For Ends
The difference between my set of statements and the various replies above, is one that is common in western philosophy. Because western philosophy was created and developed by its aristocratic classes, and those classes that performed sufficiently to afford the luxury of philosophy, and sought enfranchisement. Namely: necessity. Marx, for all his error, does…
The Struggle To Extend In-Group Trust To Outgroup Members
The ongoing struggle to extend in-group trust to out-group members. Or, the ongoing struggle to extend the cooperation demonstrated between consanguineous relations, to beyond those relations, such that it is possible for us to evolve a division of knowledge and labor, in which there is as little risk of misappropriation of our efforts in the…
Reality Is More Limited Than Imagination: The Moral Nature of Truth In The Logics an Sciences
REALITY IS MORE LIMITED THAN IMAGINATION: THE MORAL NATURE OF TRUTH IN THE LOGICS AND SCIENCES 1) We can mathematically represent more relations than can exist in reality. And we can state more things than we can demonstrate correspond with reality. And we can suggest more means and ends of cooperation than can be organized…
Reforming Libertarian Ethics
FAIR WARNING (I dont engage in justification. I try to determine the truth. And so if you manage to get through this little essay, you might not emerge with your high investment in rothbardian libertarianism intact.) PART 1 THE AXIOM OF SELF OWNERSHIP Regarding: “…the self-ownership axiom is the only one of those under consideration…
Prohibiting Magical, Socialist, Postmodern, and Pseudoscientific Arguments, as Immoral Deceptions
(This is profound, and a lot to grasp. I have copied it here from elsewhere.) While one might say that ‘it does not matter what we do, that discipline over there, is none of our concern, because whether true or not, this technique is useful to us’. The fact is that such a statement is…
The Immorality Of Platonism (Riffing Off A Critic)
RIFFING A CRITIC: THE IMMORALITY OF PLATONISM (important piece) CRITIC: –“The word ‘operationalise’ is a mantra for you. I understand many things without being able to operationalise them, such as how to use English, how to ride a bicycle, etcetera . But it’s important to pint out that most of our understandings are incomplete –…
Westerners Don't Understand Their History
“Westerners do not understand their history or why they succeeded despite being a poor illiterate people, small in number, far from the origin of civilization, because their history is articulated in moral and allegorical language not in ratio scientific terms. They cannot defend their social system because they do not understand it. The enlightenment project…