Murray Rothbard

Volume 15 in the “Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers” series focuses on the American Economist, Murray Rothbard. Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) was an economist, historian, philosopher, and legal theoretician. His work was unified by a passionate and resolute commitment to a libertarianism that may be characterized as ‘anarcho-capitalism’ and which implied a belief that even the legal system may be provided privately without the need for a coercive collective authority. Hence, anarcho-capitalists envisage a society where the traditional role of government is wholly subsumed by private, profit-making enterprises and all social relationships are ultimately founded upon consent. Rothbard’s unique intellectual contribution was to build this system of thought from many pre-existing but previously disparate strands and to develop it to its logical conclusion. Rothbard’s starting points were the notions of methodological individualism, natural rights theory, and individual self-ownership. He showed that if we wish these seriously then the justification for government falls away. According to Rothbard government can only be ‘justified’ if we abandon the notion that individuals have the right to determine what to do with their own bodies, a step he believed to be unconscionable. “Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers” provides comprehensive accounts of the works of seminal conservative thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines, and traditions – the first series of its kind. Even the selection of thinkers adds another aspect to conservative thinking, including not only theorists but also writers and practitioners. The series comprises twenty volumes, each including an intellectual biography, historical context, critical exposition of the thinker’s work, reception and influence, contemporary relevance, bibliography including references to electronic resources, and an index.

Author Biography

Gerard Casey is Senior Lecturer in philosophy at University College, Dublin. and Adjunct Professor at the Maryvale Institute. He is the author of several books and peer-reviewed journal articles, and his research interests are libertarianism and philosophical anarchism. Dr Meadowcroft is Lecturer in Public Policy at King’s College London and the author of The Ethics of the Market (Palgrave, 2005) and co-author of Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2007).