Defending Liberty: Essays in Honor of David Gordon
From the Introduction…
The American notion [is] that the end of government is liberty, not happiness, or prosperity, or power, or the preservation of an historic inheritance, or the adaptation of national law to national character, or the progress of enlightenment and the promotion of virtue; [and] that the private individual should not feel the pressure of public authority, and should direct his life by the influences that are within him, not around him. . . .
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
—Lord Acton
Anyone who discovers that David Gordon is reviewing one’s work immediately has two conflicting emotional responses. The first emotion is one of elation because one knows that one’s work is going to be given a fair and thoughtful consideration by someone who knows what the important issues and questions are. The second emotion, however, is one of trepidation because one realizes that if one’s argument has the slightest trace of ambiguity, or if one has not reasoned carefully, or left too many premises suppressed, then these will be duly noted. Either way for the person whose work is being reviewed, it is a win-win situation because it affords an opportunity to learn and make improvements—even if at times it can be painful.
The interesting thing about David Gordon reviews is that they are also essays, for they afford the reader a chance to not only gain insight about the work being considered but also the general subject matter being examined. This is the case, because David Gordon is a virtual walking encyclopedia, and because of this, he brings a wealth of information and insight to the subject matter that is being discussed. If you have not read Gordon’s reviews, examine An Austro-Libertarian View: Essays by David Gordon, 3 Vols. (Mises Institute), and you will be well-rewarded for your effort. Here you see the work of an intellectual historian.
Besides being a master reviewer,1 David is a senior fellow for the Mises Institute where he lectures and conducts colloquia. He is author of the following: Resurrecting Marx: The Analytical Marxists on Freedom, Exploitation, and Justice; The Essential Rothbard; The Philosophical Origins of Austrian Economics; Introduction to Economic Reasoning, and Critics of Marxism. Further, he is the editor of Secession, State, and Liberty and coeditor of H.B. Acton, The Morals of Markets and Related Essays.
David Gordon is also editor of the Mises Review and The Journal of Libertarian Studies. He publishes in such philosophy journals as Analysis, British Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Libertarian Studies, Mind, Political Studies, Review of Austrian Economics, and Social Philosophy and Policy. He has published eleven articles in Analysis.
To appreciate David’s style of writing and method of analysis, one needs only to consider his essay, “Anscombe on Coming into Existence and Causation” (Analysis 44.2 [March 1984]: 52–54). Here he carefully shows that in terms of her own suppositions, Anscombe did not succeed in showing that there is a difficulty in supposing that something has come into existence at a particular time and place without supposing that it has a cause. “That we cannot tell whether something has come into existence without a cause is no reason against thinking that such a circumstance is possible” (p. 54). This essay is classic David Gordon, and one can appreciate it even if one does not have much sympathy for the standard Humean view of causation, which as a matter of fact Gordon does not. His primary concern is whether the argument is sound—are its premises true and its reasoning valid.
David Gordon earned his BA, MA, and Ph. D. in History from UCLA. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and he was awarded the Rothbard Medal of Freedom from the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2006. David is a powerful intellectual champion for liberty, who understands with the great classical liberal, historian Lord Acton that liberty is indeed the highest political end. He takes his task of defending liberty seriously. He does it with wisdom and style, and we have all benefited by it.
David has a unique intellect and sense of humor. He has been a good friend and intellectual colleague to many over the years. I am pleased to be included in this group, and I am proud to edit this collection of essays in his honor.
All of the essays in this volume cover a wide range of issues that have concerned David in one way or another for some time, and they all endeavor to
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