Philosophy

About this Collection

What does it mean to be a human? What is the best life to live, and how can we live it? These questions, and the texts which explore them, have long guided humanity in its struggle to understand itself.

Key People

Titles & Essays

THE READING ROOM

A Critique of Preferentism

By: Bill Glod

A previous essay suggested ways in which preference-satisfaction utilitarianism (“preferentism”) is superior to forms of utilitarianism that focus on promoting or maximizing desirable states of consciousness (such as pleasure).…

THE READING ROOM

A Postscript to Property & Justice: A Liberal Theory of Natural Rights

By: Billy Christmas

I am grateful to the Online Library of Liberty for hosting this discussion of my book, and of course the discussants, Aeon Skoble, Jacob Levy, and Sarah Skwire, for graciously reading and engaging with my work.
In those reflections…

THE READING ROOM

Acceptance, Rejection, and Otters

By: Bill Glod

In Chapter 4 of my book, I explore a subtle but important distinction between a person having decisive reason to accept or endorse some view (“acceptability”) versus lacking decisive reason to reject it (“rejectability”). I have in…
The Advancement of Learning

Sir Francis Bacon (author)

The first of Bacon’s writings on the nature of science and the scientific method. He also had a view of the unity of knowledge, both scientific and non-scientific.

The Alchemy of Happiness

Al Ghazali (author)

Al Ghazali attempted to reconcile the Muslim faith with Aristotelian logic in this work on simple piety.

An Autobiography, 2 vols. (1904)

Herbert Spencer (author)

A 2 volume work. In volume 1 Spencer talks about the period from his early childhood up to 1856 soon after he left work on The Economist and was working on his second book. In volume 2 he covers the period from 1856 to 1889 soon…

An Autobiography, vol. 1

Herbert Spencer (author)

Volume 1 of a 2 volume work. In volume 1 Spencer talks about the period from his early childhood up to 1856 soon after he left work on The Economist and was working on his second book.

An Autobiography, vol. 2

Herbert Spencer (author)

Volume 2 of a 2 volume work. In volume 2 Spencer covers the period from 1856 to 1889 soon after he had completed his trip to the United States.

The Analects

Confucius (author)

A 1,000 page book which includes the original Chinese text, a translation, and commentaries.

THE READING ROOM

Ancient Perspectives on the Value of Poetry

By: Alexander Schmid

As one begins to read Homer’s Iliad, one might naturally wonder at who the thea, or goddess, from the first line of the poem really is. μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω ἈχιλῆοςRage, goddess, sing of the son of Peleus, Achilleus (Il.1.1)
Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, 2 vols.

St. Thomas Aquinas (author)

A translation of the principal portions of the second part of the Summa Theologica.

Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 1

St. Thomas Aquinas (author)

A translation of the principal portions of the second part of the Summa Theologica.

Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas, vol. 2

St. Thomas Aquinas (author)

A translation of the principal portions of the second part of the Summa Theologica.

THE READING ROOM

Bayle’s Dictionary: #1 Bestseller in the 18th Century

By: Walter Donway

“In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him.” --Pierre Bayle

THE READING ROOM

Benjamin Franklin: “First philosopher” of America

By: Walter Donway

"Every man…is, of common right, and by the laws of God, a freeman, and entitled to the free enjoyment of liberty.""All the property that is necessary to a man for the conservation of the individual… is his natural right which none…
The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon

Charles Wilkins (translator)

The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the greatest and most beautiful of the Hindu scriptures. It is mainly in the form of a dialogue between the warrior Prince Arjuna and his friend Krishna (the earthly incarnation of the god Vishnu). The…

THE READING ROOM

Blaise Pascal Bets It All on God

By: Walter Donway

In some ways, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is a curious figure to include in this series on the Age of Enlightenment. He lived in the seventeenth century, the Age of Science, and so joins Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Thomas…
BOLL 21: Jeremy Bentham, “The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number” (1830)

Jeremy Bentham (author)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. In this extract…

BOLL 39: Adam Smith, “Of the Character of Virtue” (1759)

Adam Smith (author)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. A thematic list…

BOLL 47: Wilhelm von Humboldt, “Of the Individual Man” (1792)

Wilhelm von Humboldt (author)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. A thematic list…

BOLL 48: J.S. Mill, “Utilitarianism” (1863)

John Stuart Mill (author)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. Mill’s classic…

BOLL 51: Percy Bysshe Shelley, “On Liberty” (1810-22)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (author)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This collection…

THE READING ROOM

Borges' Library of Babel and Virtual Reality

By: Alexander Schmid

In Borges' Library of Babel, the titular library contains every book from all possible universes, thoughts, and dreams, including both coherent and incoherent works. Everything that ever could be written is there, and so is every…
British Moralists 2 vols.

Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge (editor)

Vol. 1 contains selections from the work of Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Butler, Adam Smith, and Bentham. Vol. 2 contains works by Samuel Clarke, Balguy, Richard Price, Hobbes, Kames, Locke, Wollaston, and others.

British Moralists vol. 1

Jeremy Bentham (author)

Vol. 1 contains selections from the work of Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Butler, Adam Smith, and Bentham.

British Moralists vol. 2

Thomas Hobbes (author)

Vol. 2 contains works by Samuel Clarke, Balguy, Richard Price, Hobbes, Kames, Locke, Wollaston, and others.

THE READING ROOM

Character Description in the Prologue: Chaucer’s Challenge and Threat to England’s Religious

By: Nathaniel Birzer

That Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales has suffered periods of censorship and banning since its first publication should be of little surprise to anyone who has read any of it. Banned in the latter half of the 19th century in America…
Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 3 vols.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 1

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 2

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 3

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, 2 vols.

Benedict de Spinoza (author)

A 2 volume collection of Spinoza’s most important works. Vol. 1 contains the Theologico-Political Treatise and the posthumous Political Treatise. Vol. 2 contains On Improvement of Understanding, Ethicas, and Letters.

The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1

Benedict de Spinoza (author)

This volume contains 2 of Spinoza’s most important political works, the Theologico-Political Treatise and the posthumous Political Treatise.

The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol. 2

Benedict de Spinoza (author)

Volume 2 contains Spinoza’s ethical writings and selected letters.

The Chinese Classics

Confucius (author)

Legge provides lengthy introductions to leading Chinese philosophical works and is own translations.

The Chinese Classics: Vol. 1. The Life and Teachings of Confucius

Confucius (author)

Legge provides lengthy introduction to Confucius’ life and thought, and to three major works: the Analects, Of the Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean. The numerous indexes at the back of the book have not been reproduced in…

The Chinese Classics: Vol. 2 The Life and Teachings of Mencius

Mencius (author)

This volume contains a long introduction on the life and works of Mencius, following by 7 books from his writings. The 2 indexes have not been reproduced in the HTML version of the file but can be viewed in the facsimile PDF version.…

Chronology of John Locke’s Life

Related Links

John Locke Goodrich Seminar Room:John Locke John Locke in theConcise Encyclopedia of Economicsat Econlib Biography: John Locke Collections: Religious Toleration

Source: John Locke, A Letter concerning Toleration…

The Church

Jan Huss (author)

Huss’s most famous work for which he was burnt at the stake for claiming that Christ was the founder of the Church not Peter.

Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, in 33 vols.

John Stuart Mill (author)

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill consists of 33 volumes which contain the writings of one of the leading classical liberals of the 19th century. Mill wrote works of political economy, philosophy, history, political theory, and…

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume VII - A System of Logic Part I

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 7 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains Part 1 of Mill’s System of Logic. It contains chapters on reasoning, induction, the laws of nature, causation, and disbelief.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume VIII - A System of Logic Part II

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 8 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains Part 2 of Mill’s System of Logic. It contains chapters on fallacies, methodology of the social sciences, and the science of history.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume IX - William Hamilton’s Philosophy

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 9 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains Mill’s book on William Hamilton’s philosophy.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume X - Essays on Ethics, Religion, and Society

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 10 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains a number of Mill’s essays on religion and moral philosophy as well as his works on Utilitarianism and Auguste Comte.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XI - Essays on Philosophy and the Classics

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 11 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains a number of Mill’s essays on philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, and the history of Greece.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXXI - Miscellaneous Writings

John Stuart Mill (author)

Vol. 31 of the 33 vol. Collected Works contains Mill’s writings on botany and reviews of medical books. It also contains his edition of Bentham’s Rationale of Judicial Evidence and his father’s Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human…

The Colloquies 2 vols.

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

In the guise of a school textbook on sound Latin prose Erasmus is able to mix sound language teaching, homilies on Christian ethics, and social criticism of some of the injustices and follies of his day.

The Colloquies vol. 1

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

In the guise of a school textbook on sound Latin prose Erasmus is able to mix sound language teaching, homilies on Christian ethics, and social criticism of some of the injustices and follies of his day.

The Colloquies vol. 2

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

In the guise of a school textbook on sound Latin prose Erasmus is able to mix sound language teaching, homilies on Christian ethics, and social criticism of some of the injustices and follies of his day.

The Complaint of Peace

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

The Reformation scholar Desiderius Erasmus portrays Peace visiting to earth to deliver her verdict on the human race. She chastises kings and princes, church leaders, noblemen and ordinary soldiers alike for betraying their Christian…

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius (author)

While under arrest and awaiting execution by King Theodoric for threatening his position by attempting to reconcile a schism between Rome and Constantinople in 524, Boethius wrote his best know work, The Consolation of Philosophy, in…

The Critique of Judgement

Immanuel Kant (author)

One of Kant’s major works of philosophy which were designed to place the discipline on a sound rational footing. This volume deals with aesthetic and teleological questions.

Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics

Immanuel Kant (author)

This is an 1889 edition which includes many of Kant’s most important works such as the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, the Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals, and the…

Critique of Pure Reason

Immanuel Kant (author)

One of Kant’s most important philosophical works and one of the most important of the Enlightenment as well. In it he argues that the world that we know is structured by the way that we perceive and think about the world. Reason is…

The Data of Ethics (1879)

Herbert Spencer (author)

Spencer continues his exploration of individualist moral philosophy in this book. He examines the nature of human conduct, different ways in which conduct might be judged, the conflict between egoism and altruism, and what he calls…

THE READING ROOM

David Hume’s Great Work on Religion Is Banned, Along with All His Books

By: Walter Donway

The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.—David HumeThe life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an…

THE READING ROOM

Decent People, Bad Institutions

By: Bill Glod

Consider the following: a major United States city has witnessed a recent upswing in violent crime. Generally, U.S. crime levels are still much lower than their peak in the early 90’s, but many residents perceive their city has…

Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)

Related Links:

Erasmus

Source: Introduction to Erasmus in Praise of Folly, illustrated with many curious cuts, designed, drawn, and etched by Hans Holbein, with portrait, life of Erasmus, and his epistle to Sir Thomas More

The Dialogues of Plato, in 5 vols (Jowett ed.)

Plato (author)

A 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves the marginal comments of the printed edition and has links to…

The Dialogues of Plato, vol. 1

Plato (author)

Volume 1 (with 9 dialogues) of a 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves the marginal comments of the…

Dialogues, vol. 3 - Republic, Timaeus, Critias

Plato (author)

Volume 3 (with “The Republic” and 2 other dialogues) of a 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves the…

Dialogues, vol. 4 - Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus

Plato (author)

Volume 4 (with 5 dialogues) of a 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves the marginal comments of the…

Dialogues, vol. 5 - Laws, Index to the Writings of Plato

Plato (author)

Volume 5 (with the Laws, Index to the Writings of Plato) of a 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves the…

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Doing Justice to John Wick

By: Caroline Breashears

The John Wick franchise is better known for its award-winning stunts than its screenplays. The plots seem thin as a garotte, while the dialogue focuses on guns and Wick's ability to kill with a mere pencil. Yet the March release of…
Kant on Education (über Pädagogik)

Immanuel Kant (author)

One of the leading figures of the Enlightenment gives his thoughts on the issue of education.

An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature

Nathaniel Culverwell (author)

An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature is a concerted effort to find a middle way between the two extremes that dominated the religious dispute of the English civil war in the seventeenth century. Nathaniel…

Elements of Criticism, 2 vols.

Henry Home, Lord Kames (author)

A two volume work on the “science of criticism” by one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Kames argues that criticism of art and literature is a rational science as well as a matter of taste. In volume 1 he…

Elements of Criticism, vol. 1

Henry Home, Lord Kames (author)

Volume 1 of a two volume work on the “science of criticism” by one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Kames argues that criticism of art and literature is a rational science as well as a matter of taste. In volume…

Elements of Criticism, vol. 2

Henry Home, Lord Kames (author)

Volume 2 of a two volume work on the “science of criticism” by one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Kames argues that criticism of art and literature is a rational science as well as a matter of taste. In volume…

The Elements of Moral Philosophy

David Fordyce (author)

Fordyce’s Elements of Moral Philosophy was a notable contribution to the curriculum in moral philosophy and was one of the most widely circulated texts in moral philosophy in the second half of the eighteenth century.

English Works of Thomas Hobbes, 11 vols.

Thomas Hobbes (author)

An 11 volume collection of the English works of Thomas Hobbes which includes his best known work of philosophy and history as well as his notable translations of Thucydides and Homer.

The English Works, vol. VI (Dialogue, Behemoth, Rhetoric)

Thomas Hobbes (author)

A collection of some of Hobbes’ shorter works on philosophy and history.

The Ethical Treatises, being the Treatises of the First Ennead

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

The Ethical Treatises, being the Treatises of the First Ennead

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

Psychic and Physical Treatises; comprising the Second and Third Enneads

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

Ethical Treatises; the Books of the Fourth Ennead

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

The Divine Mind; being the Treatises of the Fifth Ennead

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

On the One and Good; being the Treatises of the Sixth Ennead

Plotinus (author)

Plotinus is primarily remembered for his teachings, which were collected by Porphyry into a volume called the Enneads. This work gives Plotinus’s accounts of the religions and cults of his age. He was interested in the occult but…

Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals

David Hume (author)

Two of David Hume’s most important works of moral philosophy, epistemology, and psychology which together were supposed to make up Hume’s “science of man”. They are a revised version of his earlier work A Treatise of Human Nature

THE READING ROOM

Envy and Inequality

By: Bill Glod

Is a desire to reduce inequality largely motivated by envy? In his pioneering work Envy, sociologist Helmut Schoeck explores the ramifications of what he claims is our indelible human tendency to compare ourselves with others. He…

THE READING ROOM

Epictetus and Psychological Freedom

By: Bill Glod

Critics sometimes accuse Stoic philosophy of defending an inflexible rationalism calling for single-minded pursuit of virtue for its own sake, at the expense of other commonly recognized goods like love and accomplishment, which are…
An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections (1742, 2002)

Francis Hutcheson (author)

The first half of the work presents a rich moral psychology built on a theory of the passions and an account of motivation deepening and augmenting the doctrine of moral sense developed in the Inquiry. The second half of the work is…

Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.)

David Hume (author)

This edition of Hume’s much neglected philosophical essays contains the thirty-nine essays included in Essays, Moral, and Literary, that made up Volume I of the 1777 posthumous Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects. It also…

Essays of Montaigne, in 10 vols.

Michel de Montaigne (author)

This is a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, Vol. 1

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 1 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, Vol. 2

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 2 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 3

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 3 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 4

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 4 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 5

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 5 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 6

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 6 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 7

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 7 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 8

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 8 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays of Montaigne, vol. 9

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 9 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Life and Letters of Montaigne with Notes and Index, vol. 10

Michel de Montaigne (author)

Volume 10 of a 10 volume collection of Montaigne’s famous essays in the 17th century English translation by Charles Cotton.

Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects (1861, 1911)

Herbert Spencer (author)

The President of Harvard University has some positive things to say in his edition of Spencer’s writings on education. In addition to republishing 4 essays which first appeared in the 1850s, Eliot also includes other essays on…

Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion

Henry Home, Lord Kames (author)

The Essays is commonly considered Kames’s most important philosophical work. In the first part, he sets forth the principles and foundations of morality and justice, attacking Hume’s moral skepticism and addressing the controversial…

Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative, 3 vols. (1891)

Herbert Spencer (author)

A three volume collection of Spencer’s essays which cover political philosophy, sociology, science, and current affairs.

Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative, Vol. 2

Herbert Spencer (author)

Volume 2 of a three volume collection of Spencer’s essays which cover political philosophy, sociology, science, and current affairs.

Ethical Writings (On Moral Duties, On Old Age, On Friendship, Scipio’s Dream)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (author)

A collection of Cicero’s writings which includes On Old Age, On Friendship, Officius, and Scipio’s Dream.

On Moral Duties (De Officiis)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (author)

Part of a collection of Cicero’s writings which includes On Old Age, On Friendship, Officius, and Scipio’s Dream.

On Old Age (De Senectute)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (author)

Part of a collection of Cicero’s writings which includes On Old Age, On Friendship, Officius, and Scipio’s Dream.

On Friendship (De Amicitia)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (author)

Part of a collection of Cicero’s writings which includes On Old Age, On Friendship, Officius, and Scipio’s Dream.

The Ethics of Confucius

Confucius (author)

A collection of Confucius’ ethical writings on topics such as the superior man, self-development, human relations, the family, the state, the cultivation of the fine arts, and religion.

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, 2 vols.

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, Vol. 1

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

The Fable of the Bees or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, Vol. 2

Bernard Mandeville (author)

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

First Principles (1867)

Herbert Spencer (author)

Spencer attempts a synthesis of his thought and expounds the first systematic theory of evolution in this work.

A Fragment on Mackintosh (1870)

James Mill (author)

Mill’s critique of Sir James Mackintosh’s “Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy” was originally published in the seventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Mill comments on Mackintosh’s interpretation of Hobbes,…

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Francis Bacon: An Enlightenment Man before the Enlightenment

By: Walter Donway

“All students and undergraduates should lay aside their various authors and only follow Aristotle and those who defend him. . . . [Avoid] all sterile and inane questions departing or disagreeing from ancient and true philosophy.” —…

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Free Will Hiding In Plain Sight

By: Bill Glod

1qq`Some authors tend to deny the existence of free will because we are not Epicurean atoms or Nietzschean Ubermen with unconstrained freedom. We’re unable to defy the physical and social world in which we’re indelibly embedded. We…

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G.K. Chesterton and Work in 20th Century America

By: Joy Buchanan

One hundred years ago, the British writer G.K. Chesterton traveled to the United States for a lecture tour. He published his observations of America in What I Saw in America (1922). In an essay titled “The American Businessman”,…

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God, Grotius, and Moral Truth: Part I

By: Eric Mack

My previous contributions to the Reading Room describe some striking, proto-liberal strands in Hugo Grotius’s early essay, The Free Sea (1609). This two-part entry begins a series of discussions of remarkable contentions about the…

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Hume on Love of Glory, not Usury

By: Eric Schliesser

It’s probably not a major surprise that prompted by the first three volumes of the Italian translation of Hume’s History of England, the Vatican placed all of Hume’s writings on the Index Librorum prohibitorum in 1827. [1] After…

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If You Like It, (Don’t) Put a Ring on It

By: Bill Glod

In The Republic, the interlocutor Glaucon asks Plato’s Socrates why we should be just. He relates a story of the shepherd Gyges, who discovers a magic ring that allows him invisibility and anonymity. The formerly decent man becomes…

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Ilia Chavchavadze – the Father of Georgian Liberalism on Private Property

By: Irakli Javakhishvili

While in Europe the famous English philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote his eminent On Liberty (1859) and perfected the teachings of utilitarian liberalism, in the East, namely in Georgia, which at that time was a part of the Tsarist…

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Related Links:

Immanuel Kant

Source: Translator's Biography in Kant’s Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, trans. with a Biography and Introduction by Ernest Belfort Bax (2nd revised edition) (London:…

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Immanuel Kant and the “Crisis of the Enlightenment”

By: Walter Donway

I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith. —Immanuel Kant

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Immanuel Kant: “The Last Enlightenment Philosopher”?

By: Walter Donway

Even to summarize the works that flowed from Kant’s pen can be challenging. They included another classic, the Critique of Practical Reason; major volumes on the nature of morality, aesthetics, politics, and anthropology; and one of…
In Praise of Folly

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

The personification of Folly comes to earth to expose the follies, foibles, and failings of humans. Illustrated with 77 woodcuts by Hans Holbein.

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In The Reading Room with Aristotle

By: Aeon J. Skoble

In several previous columns, I have talked about why we might continue to find value in Plato. But all the reasons why it’s worth taking seriously some of Plato’s insights apply as well to his pupil Aristotle. Aristotle came to…

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In The Reading Room with Plato

By: Aeon J. Skoble

When recommending books that have been around for ages, it’s not uncommon to be faced with questions from skeptics. Why, they wonder, should I bother reading that old thing when there’s all this new stuff to read? I suspect there…

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In the Reading Room with Plato and Feminism

By: Aeon J. Skoble

In previous columns I’ve discussed some reasons why there are insightful contributions from Plato that contemporary audiences might benefit from thinking about. Here’s another: his feminism. For the most part we don’t think of the…

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In The Reading Room with Plato, Again: Work-Life Balance

By: Aeon J. Skoble

In our last visit with Plato, we considered what insights he has regarding free speech and cancel culture. Another topic one can’t help but read about these days is the need for psychological balance as we pursue happiness and…

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In The Reading Room with Plato, and Some Politicians

By: Aeon J. Skoble

In previous columns, I’ve discussed Plato’s grand allegory of the city-that-is-the-soul. If we imagine a city of perfect justice, and figure out what would have to be true of it in order for it to be just, then we’d have an idea of…

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Individual Moral Responsibility for Violence: A Decrepit Concept?

By: Richard Gunderman

Moral ambition is, in principle, an admirable trait, but soaring ambition, especially when it is unmodulated by practical wisdom, can wreak considerable harm. In other words, the impulse to do good can fail to respect the bounds of…
An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1726, 2004)

Francis Hutcheson (author)

A seminal text of the Scottish Enlightenment which was written as a critical response to the work of Bernard Mandeville and as a defense of the ideas of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Shaftesbury. It consists of two treatises exploring…

Institutes of Divine Jurisprudence. With Selections from Foundations of the Law of Nature and Nations

Christian Thomasius (author)

First published in 1688, Thomasius’s Institutes attempted to draw a clear distinction between natural and revealed law and to emphasize that human reason was able to know the precepts of natural law without the aid of Scripture. His…

The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with John Hospers

Tibor R. Machan (interviewer)

John Hospers talks about his interests in moral philosophy, aesthetics, the nature of liberty, and his activity as the first Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1972.

The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Ralph McInerny

Ralph McInerny (author)

Ralph McInerny talks about his work on Thomas Aquinas, catholic political and religious thought, and his best-selling Father Dowling mystery novels.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law

Roscoe Pound (author)

A series of lectures given in the William L. Storrs lecture series in 1921 at the Yale University Law School.

An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Jeremy Bentham (author)

One of Bentham’s most important works in which he develops his theory of ‘utility’ at considerable length and discusses how the penal system (especially punishments) could be based on this theory. One of the founding texts of the…

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John Locke and the New Course of Enlightenment Reason: Empiricism

By: Walter Donway

The world hardly needs another brief introduction to the giant of English philosophy, John Locke. He could be called the author of the Western mind. And has been called the quintessential man of the Enlightenment, the “father of…

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John Locke Foments Revolution in the Name of “The Rights of Man”

By: Walter Donway

In his years as physician to and political collaborator with Shaftesbury, leader of the English Whigs, John Locke had many roles, among them as a fellow of the New Royal Society, conducting medical research, and as Shaftesbury's…

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Justice and Truth

By: Carlos Alejandro Noyola Contreras

Montaigne wrote that “we owe justice to men, and mercy and kindness to other creatures that may be capable of receiving it”. But why is justice so important? What is it about justice that Montaigne considers it among the most…
Justice: Being Part IV of the Principles of Ethics (1891)

Herbert Spencer (author)

Spencer’s most developed version of his political philosophy which grounds his theory of the state on an idea of justice based on certain rights of physical integrity, movement, property, and exchange. He then expands this theory to…

Letters of David Hume to William Strahan

David Hume (author)

Letters from Hume to William Strahan covering a number of topics including his trip to France, his thoughts on recently published books (by Smith and Gibbon), and generally about his relationships with leading members of the Scottish…

Locke: A Life

Related Links:

John Locke

Source: Editor's Introduction to The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, (London: Rivington, 1824 12th ed.). Vol. 1.

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

Mr. John Locke was the son of John Locke, of Pensford,…

Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind

Francis Hutcheson (author)

Until the publication of this Liberty Fund edition, all but one of the works contained in Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind were available only in Latin. In the words of the editors: “Hutcheson’s Latin texts…

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Marvel’s Eternals and Miltonic Euhemerism: Making Gods

By: Garth Bond

The Eternals, the latest installment in the Marvel cinematic universe, premiered this weekend. While the Marvel universe has not been incorporated into the Online Library of Liberty—surely a temporary oversight—one of the film’s…
The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (2008)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (author)

This influential classical work offers a vision of a universe governed by a natural law that obliges us to love mankind and to govern our lives in accordance with the natural order of things. Editors Hutcheson and Moor contrasted the…

The Metaphysics of Ethics

Immanuel Kant (author)

A work which contains 4 major pieces on metaphysics and ethics: the Groundwork of a Metaphysic of Ethics, an Inquiry into the a priori Operation of the Will (an extract from the Critique of Practical Reason), an Introdcution to the…

The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes

René Descartes (author)

A collection of three of Descatres philosophical works: the Discourse of Method, the Meditations, and selections from his Principles of Philosophy.

A Methodical System of Universal Law: Or, the Laws of Nature and Nations

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius (author)

The natural law theory of Johann Gottlieb Heineccius was one of the most influential to emerge from the early German Enlightenment. Heineccius continued and, in important respects, modified the ideas of his predecessors, Samuel…

The Miscellaneous Works

Sir James Mackintosh (author)

This collections contains his philosophical writings on Locke, natural law, Thomas More, and Machiavelli; his historical writings on the Glorious Revolution, his defence of the French Revolution Vindiciae Gallicae; and several of his…

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Misreading Dostoyevsky on Moral Responsibility

By: Richard Gunderman

A 2018 article in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics entitled, “Clinicians’ Need for an Ecological Approach to Violence Reduction” presents an illuminating example of moral overreach, apparently inspired by a line…

Montaigne: A Sketch

Related Links:

Montaigne

Source: Life and Letters of Montaigne with Notes and Index, vol. 10, trans. Charles Cotton, revised by William Carew Hazlett (New York: Edwin C. Hill, 1910).

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MONTAIGNE BY WILLIAM…

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Montesquieu: Legal Foundations of Liberal Government

By: Walter Donway

If you wish to study, discuss, and write about history, it can be useful to have memory tags. When it comes to Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755)—a titan of the French Enlightenment—your tag is “separation…
Plutarch’s Morals, 5 vols.

Plutarch (author)

A massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Morals, vol. 1

Plutarch (author)

Vol. 1 of a massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Morals, vol. 2

Plutarch (author)

Vol. 2 of a massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Morals, vol. 3

Plutarch (author)

Vol. 3 of a massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Morals, vol. 4

Plutarch (author)

Vol. 4 of a massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Morals, vol. 5

Plutarch (author)

Vol. 5 of a massive 5 volume work in which Plutarch muses on all manner of topics ranging from virtue and vice, friendship, flattery, the nature of love, stoic philosophy, fate, to the nature of government.

The Natural History of Religion

David Hume (author)

In The Natural History of Religion and in the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Hume provides a sustained philosophical and historical analysis of religion.

The Writings of Gershom Carmichael

Gershom Carmichael (author)

Carmichael was a Scottish jurist and philosopher who became the first Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1727. His writings on natural rights theory, theology, and logic were very influential.

On the Nature of the Gods

Marcus Tullius Cicero (author)

Cicero’s detailed discussion of the Greeks’ theories of God and religion.

The Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle (author)

In his ethical treatises Aristotle offers a defense of the idea of eudaimonism (human flourishing or happiness) which is achieved as a result of human choice in search of excellence and the good life.

Novum Organum

Sir Francis Bacon (author)

Part of a larger but incomplete magnum opus in which Bacon demonstrates the use of the scientific method to discover knowledge about the natural world. Many of the examples in this volume concern the nature of heat and energy.

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OLL’s February Birthday: Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (February 28, 1533-September 13, 1592)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

February’s OLL Birthday Essay celebrates the great French humanist and philosopher, Michel de Montaigne. Despite, or perhaps because of, his aristocratic heritage and privileged upbringing, he developed a non-pretentious personal…

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OLL’s January Birthday: Samuel Pufendorf (January 8, 1632 – October 26, 1694)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

This January’s OLL Birthday Essay is dedicated to the German philosopher Samuel Pufendorf, whose work on Natural Law built on that of Hobbes and Grotius and subsequently influenced the Scottish Enlightenment and all later thinking…

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OLL’s June Birthday: Wilhelm von Humboldt (June 22, 1767 – April 8, 1835)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

June’s OLL Birthday Essay goes out to Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt, generally known to history as Wilhelm von Humboldt. A true polymath, he was a diplomat, philosopher, poet, linguist and anthropologist,…

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OLL’s March Birthday: Gustave de Molinari (March 3, 1819 – January 28, 1912)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

This month’s featured birthday anniversary is the Franco-Belgian economist and social scientist Gustave de Molinari. Over the course of his long life, he wrote numerous books and essays in which he argued that the forces of the free…

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OLL’s May Birthday: Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803-April 27, 1882)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

May’s OLL Birthday essay is dedicated to the American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Through his life of lecturing and writing, Emerson was a tireless supporter of the dignity and freedom of every individual.

On Being a Conservative Philosopher: Tensions in the Work of Michael Oakeshott

Elaine Sternberg (author)

Michael Oakeshott has often been considered to be a conservative philosopher. This essay will explore what that might mean and highlight some of the tensions between conservatism and philosophy in Oakeshott’s writings.*

October 3,…

On the Nature of Things

Titus Lucretius Carus (author)

Lucretius expounds the Epicurian view that the world can be explained by the operation of material forces and natural laws and thus one should not fear the gods or death. He had a considerable influence on writers such as Montaigne.

The Perfectibility of Man

John Passmore (author)

Thoroughly and elegantly, Passmore explores the history of the idea of perfectibility - manifest in the ideology of perfectibilism - and its consequences, which have invariably been catastrophic for individual liberty and…

Philosophical Works of David Hume

David Hume (author)

Vol. 1 - Treatise of Human Nature Bk 1; Vol. 2 - Treatise of Human Nature Bk 2 and 3; Vol. 3 - Essays Moral, Political and Literary; Vol. 4 An Inquiry Concerning the Human Understanding, An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of…

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 1 (Treatise of Human Nature Part 1) (1828 ed.)

David Hume (author)

An 1828 edition of Book I of the Treatise of Human Nature.

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 2 (1828 ed.)

David Hume (author)

An 1828 edition of Books II and II of the Treatise of Human Nature and The Dialogues concerning Natural Religion.

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 3 (Essays Moral, Political, and Literary) (1828 ed.)

David Hume (author)

An 1828 edition of the Essays, Moral, Political and Literary.

The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 4 (1828 ed.)

David Hume (author)

An 1828 edition of An Inquiry Concerning the Human Understanding, An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, The Natural History of Religion, and additional essays.

The Philosophy and Theology of Averroes

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (author)

A collection of Averroes’ shorter works on religion, including the relation between religion and philosophy, the nature of eternal knowledge, and methods of argument and faith.

The Philosophy of Law

Immanuel Kant (author)

This 1887 translation contains Kant’s General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals and both parts of The Science of Right.

The Poems and Fragments

Hesiod (author)

A collection of Hesiod’s poems and fragments, including Theogony which are stories of the gods, and the Works and Days which deals with peasant life.

Posterior Analytics

Aristotle (author)

Aristotle sets out the conditions under which scientific arguments will provide true knowledge; where true conclusions are deduced from first principles and basic principles are used to explain more complex ones.

The Principles of Ethics, 2 vols. (1879) (LF ed.)

Herbert Spencer (author)

A two volume work which Spencer considered to be his finest work. In volume I he covers the data of ethics, the inductions of ethics, and the ethics of individual life. In the second volume he covers the ethics of social life (or…

The Principles of Ethics, vol. 1 (LF ed.)

Herbert Spencer (author)

Vol. I of a two volume work which Spencer considered to be his finest work. In volume I he covers the data of ethics, the inductions of ethics, and the ethics of individual life.

Read the Liberty Classic on this title from Econlib.

The Principles of Ethics, vol. 2 (LF ed.)

Herbert Spencer (author)

Spencer considered The Principles of Ethics to be his finest work. In the second volume he covers the ethics of social life (or justice), negative beneficence, positive beneficence, and a number of topics in several appendices (such…

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy, 2 vols.

George Turnbull (author)

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy presents the first masterpiece of Scottish Common Sense philosophy. This two-volume treatise is important for its wide range of insights about the nature of the human mind, the…

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy. Vol. 1

George Turnbull (author)

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy presents the first masterpiece of Scottish Common Sense philosophy. This two-volume treatise is important for its wide range of insights about the nature of the human mind, the…

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy. Vol. 2: Christian Philosophy

George Turnbull (author)

The Principles of Moral and Christian Philosophy presents the first masterpiece of Scottish Common Sense philosophy. This two-volume treatise is important for its wide range of insights about the nature of the human mind, the…

The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

William Paley (author)

This classic work by William Paley was one of the most popular books in England and America in the early nineteenth century. Its significance lies in the fact that it marks an important point at which eighteenth century “whiggism”…

The Principles of Natural and Politic Law

Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (author)

The basis of this version of The Principles of Natural and Politic Law is Thomas Nugent’s 1763 English translation. The first scholarly work on Burlamaqui was written by an American, M. Ray Forrest Harvey, who in 1937 argued that…

The Principles of Psychology (1855)

Herbert Spencer (author)

In this volume Spencer elaborates his views on reasoning, perception, the nature of life, intelligence, feeling, and the will.

Kant’s Prolegomena and Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science.

Ernest Belfort Bax (translator)

It is here and in the Critique of Pure Reason that Kant attempted to rebuild modern philosophy from its foundations up in order to demonstrate that philosophers (like the rationalists Leibnitz and Descartes) and scietnists would not…

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Property and Justice: An OLL Book Discussion

By: Sarah Skwire, Jacob T. Levy, and Aeon J. Skoble

I recently had the chance to sit down with Jacob Levy and Aeon Skoble to talk about Billy Christmas's new book Property and Justice: A Liberal Theory of Natural Rights. Its carefully drawn argument about the connections among…
Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley in 2 vols. (1906)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (author)

A 2 volume collection of prose writings. Vol. 1 includes 2 youthful prose romances, the Refutation of Deism, his Declaration of Rights, an essay on electoral reform, and other short pieces. Vol. 2 includes A Defence of Poetry, On a…

Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley vol. 2 (1906)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (author)

Vol. 2 of a 2 volume collection of prose writings. Vol. 2 includes A Defence of Poetry, On a Future State, Speculations on Metaphysics, and Letters from Italy.

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René Descartes Dreams the “Philosopher’s Dream”—And Launches Modern Philosophy

By: Walter Donway

In winter 1619, the man who became the “founder of modern philosophy,” the first great philosophical challenge to centuries of Christianized Aristotelian Scholasticism, found himself caught by winter in the little town of Ulm, near…
The Republic (1888 ed.)

Plato (author)

A stand-alone version of “The Republic” taken from Volume 3 of a 5 volume edition of Plato by the great English Victorian Greek scholar, Benjamin Jowett. The scholarly apparatus is immense and detailed. The online version preserves…

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Rousseau’s Discourse on the Arts and Sciences

By: Philip D. Bunn

Rousseau’s life was marked and marred by controversy and persecution. Though his lifestyle was somewhat sordid, as recounted in his Confessions, it was his ideas that were treated as most dangerous by his contemporary intellectual…
The Sacred Books of the East, 50 vols.

Friedrich Max Müller (editor)

A massive 50 volume collection of translations of Asian texts under the general editorship of the Oxford philologist Max Müller.

The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism. Part I

Confucius (author)

Part of a collection of volumes dealing with the works of the Confucian School. This volume contains collections of historical documents, the poetry known as the Shih King, and the classic of filial piety.

The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism, Part IV. The Li Ki, XI-XLVI

Confucius (author)

Part of a collection of volumes dealing with the works of Confucius. This volume is subtitled “a collection of treatises on the role of propriety or ceremonial usage.”

The Texts of Taoism, Part I

Lao Tzu (author)

Part of a collection of volumes dealing with the works of Taoism. This volume contains Tao Teh King (or Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu) and the Writings of Kwang Ze (or Zhuangzi).

Scholasticism and Politics (1940, 2011)

Jacques Maritain (author)

Scholasticism and Politics, first published in 1940, is a collection of nine lectures Jacques Maritain delivered at the University of Chicago in 1938. Maritain championed the cause of what he called personalist democracy—a regime…

Selections from the Scottish Philosophy of Common Sense

George Alexander Johnston (editor)

Johnston introduces his selection of some representative works of the Scottish School of Common Sense by Thomas Reid, Adam Ferguson, James Beattie, and Dugald Stewart.

September 2022: Liberty and Virtue in the Axial Age

Please join us in September 2022 for an enlightening online experience with Peter Mentzel.

Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions.All readings are available online.…

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Shaftesbury’s Theory of a “Moral Sense” Sets the Direction of the British Enlightenment (Part 1)

By: Walter Donway

The moral sense is “predominant...inwardly joined to us, and implanted in our nature...a first principle in our constitution...” Lord Shaftesbury

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Shaftesbury’s Theory of a “Moral Sense” Sets the Direction of the British Enlightenment (Part 2)

By: Walter Donway

“T’was Mr. Locke that struck all fundamentals, threw all order and virtue out of the world...” Lord Shaftesbury
A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy (LF bi-lingual ed.) (1747)

Francis Hutcheson (author)

This Liberty Fund publication of Philosophiae Moralis Institutio Compendiaria is a parallel edition of the English and Latin versions of a book designed by Hutcheson for use in the classroom.

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Social Coercion in Libertopia

By: Bill Glod

James moves to the small town of Libertopia, where property rights are respected with perfect consistency. There is no force or fraud. Contracts are still normally in writing but handshakes uphold deals reliably. One can leave one’s…
Some Religious and Moral Teachings

Alban G. Widgery (introduction)

A selection of passages taken from Ghazzali’s longer works.

The Spiritual Physick

Arthur John Arberry (translator)

Rhazes’ medical works were important source books for Western physicians until the rise of modern medicine in the nineteenth century. His most acclaimed work on human psychology and spirituality was The Spiritual Physic.

The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I. 10 vols.

Fathers of the English Dominican Province (translator)

A multi-volume collection of Aquinas’ greatest work on philosophy and theology.

The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I QQ I.-XXVI. Vol. 1.

Fathers of the English Dominican Province (translator)

Vol. 1 of a multi-volume collection of Aquinas’ greatest work on philosophy and theology.

The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I QQ XXVII-XLIX. Vol. 2

Fathers of the English Dominican Province (translator)

Vol. 2 of a multi-volume collection of Aquinas’ greatest work on philosophy and theology.

The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I QQ L.-LXXIV. Vol. 3

Fathers of the English Dominican Province (translator)

Vol. 3 of a multi-volume collection of Aquinas’ greatest work on philosophy and theology.

The “Summa Theologica” of St. Thomas Aquinas. Part I QQ LXXV._CII. Vol. 4 (Treatise on Man)

Fathers of the English Dominican Province (translator)

Vol. 4 of a multi-volume collection of Aquinas’ greatest work on philosophy and theology.

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Tai Shang Kan-Ying Pien: From the Liberty Fund Rare Book Room

By: Sarah Skwire

Last week we visited the Liberty Fund rare book room to take a look at a beautiful early edition of one of the most canonical, and canonizing, books in the English language, Johnson's Dictionary. This week, I thought it might be fun…
The Teachings of Zoroaster and the Philosophy of the Parsi Religion

Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) (author)

A collection of extracts of the most important writings and sayings of Zarathushstra the founder of the Zoroastrian religion.

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The Buddha and the Quest for Liberation

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

The Buddha (Sanskrit for “The Enlightened One”) is the title given to Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BCE). His life and teachings formed the foundations of Buddhism, one of the world’s major religions. The Buddha’s biography and…

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The Enlightenment as Method: Rebirth, Science, Humanism, Reformation

By: Walter Donway

On the long runway to take-off of the Enlightenment—and the modern world as we know it—were the intellectual movements of humanism, including the scientific revolution (late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), the Renaissance…

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The Haskalah Comes of Age with Moses Mendelssohn

By: Walter Donway

Born in Dessau to a poor family, his father a scribe, Moses Mendelssohn was educated privately by his father and a local rabbi, David Frankel, who not only taught him the Talmud and the Bible but also introduced him to philosophy…

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The Knight’s Tale and its Critics: Chaucer’s Response to Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy

By: Nathaniel Birzer

At the heart of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales lies the Challenge, the thing which draws out the innermost being of each of the characters, revealing a piece of their souls to their fellow pilgrims and sparking the wide-ranging…

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The Market for Liberty in Ancient China

By: Roderick T. Long

In his 1956 book The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, free-market economist Ludwig von Mises wrote:
“The idea of liberty is and has always been peculiar to the West. What separates East and West is first of all the fact that the peoples…

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The Maskilim Launch the Haskalah: The Jewish Enlightenment

By: Walter Donway

“The Haskalah movement had no less a historical impact on the Jews than did the French Revolution on Europe.” —Shmuel Feiner, The Jewish Enlightenment

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The Self & Sympathy: David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

By: John Alcorn

David Hume conceives the mind in metaphors. The mind is a theater, a republic, a stringed instrument. These metaphors suggest that an individual has multiple selves, whose relations resemble social interactions.
Theory of Moral Sentiments and Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1869)

Adam Smith (author)

This edition contains an abridged biographical essay by Dugald Stewart, the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and seven “Essays on Philosophical Subjects.”

The Thirteen Principal Upanishads

Robert Ernest Hume (translator)

These are commentaries on the Hindu sacred texts known as the Vedas.

Thirty Minor Upanishads

K Narayanaswami Aiyar (translator)

A selection from the very many Upanishads in the Indian tradition. These are based upon themes such as the Vedanta, physiological, mantras, Sannyasa, and Yoga.

The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

Charles Kegan Paul (translator)

The collection of writings known as “Thoughts” were not published in Pascal’s lifetime. They consist of his musings about life, religion, god, sin, miracles, and other matters.

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Three Ways of Looking at Individualism: Freedom in Agency

By: Bill Glod

In Anarchy, State, and Utopia Robert Nozick asks readers to imagine that we could connect ourselves to “experience machines”. These devices could manipulate our brains into believing an entirely virtual reality where we can vividly…

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Three Ways of Looking at Individualism: Freedom in Association

By: Bill Glod

Sometimes defenders of individualism are accused of “atomism”. I’m not really sure what that term means because skeptics, if they define it at all, rarely define it in a way that reflects what serious defenders of individualism…

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Three Ways of Looking at Individualism: Freedom in Responsibility

By: Bill Glod

Defending the supreme importance of individual freedom is not about endorsing license – it’s not about doing whatever you want like a self-centered immature kid. Although sometimes accused of such, individualists need not be…
A Treatise of Human Nature

Lewis Amherst Selby-Bigge (editor)

Hume’s first major work of philosophy published in 1739 when he was just 29 yeas old. It is made up of three books entitled “Of the Understanding”, “Of the Passions”, and “Of Morals”. In the book he uses his sceptical rationalism to…

A Treatise of the Laws of Nature

Richard Cumberland (author)

A Treatise of the Laws of Nature, first appeared in 1672 as a theoretical response to a range of issues that came together during the late 1660s. It argued that science might offer an effective means of demonstrating the contents and…

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method

Ludwig von Mises (author)

Written toward the end of Mises’s life, his last monograph, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, returned to economics as a science based on human action.

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Utilitarianism: Pleasure or Preference?

By: Bill Glod

Spend much time in discussion of ethics and you’ll likely hear standard objections to various utilitarian theories. In their single-minded drive to maximize some version of the good (e.g., desirable conscious states like pleasure),…

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Voltaire’s A Philosophical Dictionary: From the Liberty Fund Rare Book Room

By: Sarah Skwire

I pulled Pierre Goodrich's copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary off the shelves because of the glorious mid 20th century book design. The striking cream and black checkerboard is eye-catching and emphasizes the "marquee"…

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What if everyone did that? Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Ethics (1785)

By: John Alcorn

“The categorical imperative is therefore single and one: ‘Act from that maxim only which thou canst will law universal.’”—Immanuel Kant, Groundwork, Chapter II

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What “Irish Enlightenment”? The Case of George Berkeley

By: Walter Donway

In earlier posts on John Toland and Jonathan Swift, I pointed out that champions of the Irish Enlightenment seem to elude being identified with specifically Irish aspects of that European movement. George Berkeley, born in Dysart…

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When Liberals Behave Illiberally

By: Bill Glod

Attempts to reach a liberal utopia are likely to fail. I claim this not as a Burkean conservative but as a classical liberal and ardent defender of individualism. People should be free to live and interact by their own conscience…
The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature (1673, 2003)

Samuel von Pufendorf (author)

The Whole Duty of Man (first published in Latin in 1673), was among the first works to suggest a purely conventional basis for natural law. Rejecting scholasticism’s metaphysical theories, Pufendorf found the source of natural law in…

THE READING ROOM

Why Be Moral?

By: Bill Glod

Philosophers like to ask questions whose answer might seem obvious at first glance but for which satisfactory accounts often prove elusive. One such question is “Why be moral?” You might think there should be some convincing…

THE READING ROOM

Why Marvel’s Black Widow Would Love Mary Wollstonecraft

By: Caroline Breashears

In Marvel's film Black Widow (2021), the Red Guardian (Alexei) praises the achievements of the two women he had pretended to father as part of a Russian sleeper cell: "Yelena, you went on to become the greatest child assassin the…
The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes

John Locke (author)

A nine volume collection of the works of John Locke.

The Works, vol. 1 An Essay concerning Human Understanding Part 1

John Locke (author)

The first part of Locke’s most important work of philosophy. Continued in volume 2.

The Works, vol. 2 An Essay concerning Human Understanding Part 2 and Other Writings

John Locke (author)

The second part of Locke’s most important work of philosophy. Continued from volume 1. It also contains some of his shorter writings, especially the Elements of Natural Philosophy.

Works of John Locke, vol. 3

John Locke (author)

Locke’s responses to criticism of his Essay of Human Understanding by the Bishop of Worcester.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. (Fireside Edition).

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

The 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 1 (Nature, Addresses, and Lectures)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 1 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 2 (Essays. First Series)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 2 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 3 (Essays. Second Series)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 3 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson. The second series of essays were originally published in 1844.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 4 (Representative Men)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 4 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 6 (The Conduct of Life)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 6 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 7 (Society and Solitude)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 7 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 8 (Letters and Social Aims)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 8 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 10 (Lectures and Biographical Sketches)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 10 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 12 (Natural History of Intellect and Other Papers)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (author)

Vol. 12 of the 12 volume Fireside edition of the works of Emerson.

The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (translator)

The philosophical writings of the ex-Roman slave who turned to Stoicism. It contains his Discourses, the Enchiridion, and several Fragments attributed to him.

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 8

John Bowring (editor)

An 11 volume collection of the works of Jeremy Bentham edited by the philosophic radical and political reformer John Bowring.

The Works of Voltaire, Vol. III (Philosophical Dictionary Part 1)

William F. Fleming (translator)

Volume 1 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “A to Calends” The Philosophical Dictionary first appeared in 1764 in a “pocket edition” designed to be carried about one’s person. It consists of a series of short essays on…

The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV (Philosophical Dictionary Part 2)

William F. Fleming (translator)

Volume 2 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “Cannibals” to the “Falsity of Human Virtues.” The Philosophical Dictionary first appeared in 1764 in a pocket edition. It consists of a series of short essays on a variety…

The Works of Voltaire, Vol. V (Philosophical Dictionary Part 3)

William F. Fleming (translator)

Volume 3 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “Fanaticism” to the “Job.” The Philosophical Dictionary first appeared in 1764 in a “pocket edition” designed to be carried about one’s person. It consists of a series of…

The Works of Voltaire, Vol. VI (Philosophical Dictionary Part 4)

William F. Fleming (translator)

Volume 4 of the Philosophical Dictionary with entries from “Joseph” to the “Privileges.” The Philosophical Dictionary* first appeared in 1764 in a “pocket edition” designed to be carried about one’s person. It consists of a series of…

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Quotes

Politics & Liberty

Adam Ferguson on Democracy

Adam Ferguson

Philosophy

Adam Ferguson on Love, Self-Interest, and Pleasure

Adam Ferguson

Quote

Adam Smith and our Propensity to Deceive rather than to Think ill of Ourselves

Adam Smith

Society

Adam Smith on Admiration of the Rich and Powerful

Adam Smith

Philosophy

Adam Smith on Happiness, Tranquility, and Enjoyment

Adam Smith

Quote

Adam Smith on Men of Public Spirit

Adam Smith

Philosophy

Adam Smith on Religion and the Rules of Morality

Adam Smith

The State

Adam Smith on social change and “the man of system” (1759)

Adam Smith

Class

Adam Smith on the dangers of faction and privilege seeking (1759)

Adam Smith

Politics & Liberty

Adam Smith on the Dangers of sacrificing one’s Liberty for the supposed benefits of the “lordly servitude of a court” (1759)

Adam Smith

Justice

Adam Smith on the illegitimacy of using force to promote beneficence (1759)

Adam Smith

Quote

Adam Smith on the Nature of Happiness

Adam Smith

Odds & Ends

Adam Smith on the ridiculousness of romantic love (1759)

Adam Smith

War & Peace

Adam Smith on the Sympathy one feels for those Vanquished in a battle rather than for the Victors (1762)

Adam Smith

Class

Adam Smith on why people obey and defer to their rulers (1759)

Adam Smith

Class

Adam Smith thinks many candidates for high political office act as if they are above the law (1759)

Adam Smith

Society

Adam Smith, Patriotism, and the Welfare of Our Fellow Citizens

Adam Smith

Philosophy

Adam Smith, Selfishness, and Sympathy

Adam Smith

Philosophy

Aristotle and Virtue Ethics

Aristotle

Philosophy

Aristotle insists that man is either a political animal (the natural state) or an outcast like a “bird which flies alone” (4thC BC)

Aristotle

Freedom of Speech

Benedict de Spinoza on the natural right every person has to think and speak on any subject they choose (1670)

Benedict de Spinoza

Class

Bentham on how “the ins” and “the outs” lie to the people in order to get into power (1843)

Jeremy Bentham

Economics

Bentham on the proper role of government: “Be Quiet” and “Stand out of my sunshine” (1843)

Jeremy Bentham

Economics

Bernard Mandeville concludes his fable of the bees with a moral homily on the virtues of peace, hard work, and diligence (1705)

Bernard Mandeville

War & Peace

Bernard Mandeville on how the Hardships and Fatigues of War bear most heavily on the “working slaving People” (1732)

Bernard Mandeville

Economics

Bernard Mandeville uses a fable about bees to show how prosperity and good order comes about through spontaneous order (1705)

Bernard Mandeville

Philosophy

Cicero on being true to one’s own nature while respecting the common nature of others (c. 50 BCE)

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Cicero on the need for politicians to place the interests of those they represent ahead of their own private interests (1st century BC)

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Justice

Cicero urges the Senate to apply the laws equally in order to protect the reputation of Rome and to provide justice for the victims of a corrupt magistrate (1stC BC)

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Revolution

Condorcet on why the French revolution was more violent than the American (1794)

Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet

Politics & Liberty

Condorcet writes about the inevitability of the spread of liberty and prosperity while he was in prison awaiting execution by the Jacobins (1796)

Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet

Philosophy

Confucius on Prudence and the Superior Man

Confucius

Politics & Liberty

David Hume believes we should assume all men are self-interested knaves when it comes to politics (1777)

David Hume

Food & Drink

David Hume examines the pride of the turkey (and other creatures) (1739)

David Hume

Free Trade

David Hume on how the prosperity of one’s neighbors increases one’s own prosperity (1777)

David Hume

Property Rights

David Hume on property as a convention which gradually emerges from society (1739)

David Hume

Origin of Government

David Hume on the origin of government in warfare, and the “perpetual struggle” between Liberty and Power (1777)

David Hume

Philosophy

David Hume on the Perception of Beauty

David Hume

Origin of Government

David Hume ponders why the many can be governed so easily by the few and concludes that both force and opinion play a role (1777)

David Hume

Natural Rights

Epictetus on one’s inner freedom that is immune to external coercion (c. 100 CE)

Epictetus

Natural Rights

Francis Hutcheson on the difference between “perfect” and “imperfect” rights (1725)

Francis Hutcheson

Philosophy

Francis Hutcheson’s early formulation of the principle of “the greatest Happiness for the greatest Numbers” (1726)

Francis Hutcheson

Food & Drink

Herbert Spencer on the pitfalls of arguing with friends at the dinner table (1897)

Herbert Spencer

Sport and Liberty

Herbert Spencer worries that the violence and brutalities of football will make it that much harder to create a society in which individual rights will be mutually respected (1879)

Herbert Spencer

Law

J.S. Mill in a speech before parliament denounced the suspension of Habeas Corpus and the use of flogging in Ireland, saying that those who ordered this “deserved flogging as much as any of those who were flogged by his orders” (1866)

John Stuart Mill

Women’s Rights

J.S. Mill on the wife as the “actual bondservant of her husband” in the 19th century (1869)

John Stuart Mill

Women’s Rights

J.S. Mill spoke in Parliament in favour of granting women the right to vote, to have “a voice in determining who shall be their rulers” (1866)

John Stuart Mill

Politics & Liberty

J.S. Mill was convinced he was living in a time when he would experience an explosion of classical liberal reform because “the spirit of the age” had dramatically changed (1831)

John Stuart Mill

Property Rights

J.S. Mill’s great principle was that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign” (1859)

John Stuart Mill

Class

Jeremy Bentham argued that the ruling elite benefits from corruption, waste, and war (1827)

Jeremy Bentham

Class

Jeremy Bentham on how the interests of the many (the people) are always sacrificed to the interests of the few (the sinister interests) (1823)

Jeremy Bentham

Natural Rights

Jeremy Bentham on rights as a creation of the state alone (1831)

Jeremy Bentham

Philosophy

Jeremy Bentham on the Utility Principle

Jeremy Bentham

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

Jeremy Bentham relates a number of “abominations” to the French National Convention urging them to emancipate their colonies (1793)

Jeremy Bentham

Religion & Toleration

John Locke believed that the magistrate should not punish sin but only violations of natural rights and public peace (1689)

John Locke

Religion & Toleration

John Locke on the separation of Church and Magistrate (1689)

John Locke

Education

John Locke tells a “gentleman” how important reading and thinking is to a man of his station whose “proper calling” should be the service of his country (late 1600s)

John Locke

Class

John Stuart Mill discusses the origins of the state whereby the “productive class” seeks protection from one “member of the predatory class” in order to gain some security of property (1848)

John Stuart Mill

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

John Stuart Mill on “the sacred right of insurrection” (1862)

John Stuart Mill

Colonies, Slavery & Abolition

John Stuart Mill on the “atrocities” committed by Governor Eyre and his troops in putting down the Jamaica rebellion (1866)

John Stuart Mill

Religion & Toleration

John Stuart Mill on the “religion of humanity” (c. 1858)

John Stuart Mill

Politics & Liberty

John Stuart Mill on the need for limited government and political rights to prevent the “king of the vultures” and his “minor harpies” in the government from preying on the people (1859)

John Stuart Mill

Women’s Rights

John Stuart Mill uses an analogy with the removal of protective duties and bounties in trade to urge a similar “Free Trade” between the sexes (1869)

John Stuart Mill

Economics

Lao Tzu and the Tao of laissez-faire (6thC BC)

Lao Tzu

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Lao Tzu discusses how “the great sages” (or wise advisors) protect the interests of the prince and thus “prove to be but guardians in the interest of the great thieves” (600 BC)

Lao Tzu

Property Rights

Lord Kames states that the “hoarding appetite” is part of human nature and that it is the foundation of our notion of property rights (1779)

Henry Home, Lord Kames

Economics

Mandeville on the social cooperation which is required to produce a piece of scarlet cloth (1723)

Bernard Mandeville

Philosophy

Marcus Aurelius on using reason to live one’s life “straight and right” (170)

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Philosophy

Michael Oakeshott on Individualized Reason

Michael Oakeshott

Socialism & Interventionism

Mill on the dangers of the state turning men into “docile instruments” of its will (1859)

John Stuart Mill

Justice

Pascal and the absurd notion that the principles of justice vary across state borders (1669)

Blaise Pascal

Philosophy

Plato believed that great souls and creative talents produce “offspring” which can be enjoyed by others: wisdom, virtue, poetry, art, temperance, justice, and the law (340s BC)

Plato

Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

Plato warns of the people’s protector who, once having tasted blood, turns into a wolf and a tyrant (340s BC)

Plato

Politics & Liberty

Samuel Smiles on how an idle, thriftless, or drunken man can, and should, improve himself through self-help and not by means of the state (1859).

Samuel Smiles

Politics & Liberty

Shaftesbury on the need for liberty to promote the liberal arts (1712)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Freedom of Speech

Shaftesbury on the True Test of Bravery

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Quote

Shaftesbury on Truth as the Most Powerful Thing in the World

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Philosophy

Socrates on the Good in Death

Plato

Economics

Spencer on spontaneous order produced by “the beneficent working of social forces” (1879)

Herbert Spencer

Parties & Elections

Spencer on voting as a poor instrument for protecting our rights to life, liberty, and property (1879)

Herbert Spencer

Parties & Elections

Spencer on voting in elections as a screen behind which the wirepullers turn the sovereign people into a puppet (1882)

Herbert Spencer

Freedom of Speech

Spinoza on being master of one’s own thoughts (1670)

Benedict de Spinoza

Religion & Toleration

Spinoza on the dangers of using superstition to hoodwink the people (1670)

Benedict de Spinoza

Freedom of Speech

The Earl of Shaftesbury on the value of good conversations for questioning everything (1709)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Sport and Liberty

The Earl of Shaftesbury relates the story of an unscrupulous glazier who gives the rowdy town youths a football so they will smash windows in the street and thus drum up business (1737)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Odds & Ends

The Earl of Shaftesbury states that civility and politeness is a consequence of liberty by which “we polish one another, and rub off our Corners and rough Sides” (1709)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury

Origin of Government

William Paley dismisses as a fiction the idea that there ever was a binding contract by which citizens consented to be ruled by their government (1785)

William Paley

Property Rights

Wollaston on crimes against person or property as contradictions of fundamental truths (1722)

William Wollaston

Notes About This Collection

See also the extracts, chapters, and introductions in the Philosophy section of the Ideas page.