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9. Culture and Liberty

Tags: Philosophy and Methodology, Media and Culture

06/30/2006 Roderick T. Long

Does libertarianism require widespread acceptance of certain cultural values? One end of the spectrum says yes [thick libertarianism]. The other end says libertarianism does not require any other set of values except the non-aggression principle – the right not to have force initiated against them [thin libertarianism].

Long argues that the essential core of libertarianism is non-aggression, but that other elements can be part of libertarianism without being essential. An argument against thick libertarianism is that the liberty goal can lose out to helping the masses goal – a danger that one might focus on one thing and drop the other.

The ninth of ten lectures from the Foundations of Libertarian Ethics seminar with Roderick T. Long.

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