Philosophy

Presented at Mises University 2021.

If scarcity is at the root of all conflict, what does that tell us about rights?

Countless Americans have been repeatedly told to “follow the science,” supposedly to prove they are not obstinately closed-minded. But the main purpose of it all was just to open people’s minds to what government bureaucrats wanted. 

Wittgenstein one said, “If people did not sometimes do silly things … nothing intelligent would ever get done.”  This notion is important in understanding the benefits and realities of entrepreneurship and risk taking. 

There's a problem in a discipline when scholars don't realize that a view is controversial and needs to be supported by argument. Deirdre McCloskey is one such scholar. 

Countless Americans have been repeatedly told to “follow the science,” supposedly to prove they are not obstinately closed-minded. But the main purpose of it all was just to open people’s minds to what government bureaucrats wanted. 

Mises was strongly committed to Darwinism, but, he says, the social Darwinists drew the wrong lessons from evolution. The onset of the division of labor changes biological competition into social competition, in which no one is annihilated. 

There is little evidence that Mill advocated an unhampered marketplace of ideas. In fact, there is evidence to the contrary—that he preferred a kind of “affirmative action for unconventional opinions.”

Practically everyone wants material prosperity. For this reason, Mises argued, the marketplace is the one place where humanity can come within reach of rational agreement.

It is no surprise that the corporate media tends to showcase and honor experts whose views tend to reflect the views of media pundits and editors themselves. The idea that the public might prefer other experts leaves these pundits in dismay.