Philosophy and Methodology

The system has never worked but less now than ever. Gene Callahan calls for eliminating patent protection.

A fairly well-established subclass of neoclassical economics fails to get to the root of the problem, argues Chris Westley. 

J.B. Say deserves to be remembered, especially by Austrian economists, as a pivotal figure in the history of economic thought. Yet, one finds him discussed very briefly, if at all. In fact, even Austrians have devoted little attention to Say's contributions.

The most devastating effects of taxation--as with  robbery, burglary, and other forms of
confiscation--are the ones we can't see. 

In addition to sobering tales of government malfeasance, a new work by Roberts and Stratton offers us a theory explaining why these abuses occur: review by Robert Murphy 

Man does not operate based on a "utility function," but by making discrete, unpredictable decisions when faced with a choice, writes Gene Callahan.

The habits of empire are a bad fit with U.S. ideals, institutions, and love of liberty: a manifesto by Jon Basil Utley. 

Richard Rorty is a man possessed. Like his grandfather, the Social Gospel theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, he knows what ails the world and how we may ascend to the secular equivalent of paradise. 

Pundits and politicians, following innumerable scholars for 150 years, will twist and mangle the text to discern some other meaning from the document besides the obvious one.

The present anthology of David Stove articles is an excellent book throughout, but I should like first to concentrate on a few pages that make a decisive contribution to contemporary thought.