Liberty in Propertarian Practice: a Libertarian Viewpoint

"to better protect and promote liberty in practice in the real world, these positive rules and solutions can be instituted as enforceable private property ... and legal remedies"

liberty in propertarian practice As we have seen, in a hypothetical world of perfect ^*libertarians the three positive rules and three solutions to application problems might be enough for libertarianism to function. But in order to better protect and promote liberty in practice in the real world, these positive rules and solutions can be instituted as enforceable ^*private property (an added sophistication is similarly derivable ^*intellectual property) and ^*legal remedies for infractions. (The idea that the ^*state is in any way necessary or sufficient to institute and protect such ^*law and order is, of course, the very opposite of the truth.)

As a result, we can now see that—strictly speaking—libertarian ^*self-ownership, private property, and legal remedies cannot be inherently ^*liberty in itself or even liberty in practice (as propertarian theories of libertarianism superficially assume). Otherwise, we risk conflating liberty and property into an unfalsifiable and confused theory (or even a mere stipulative definition).

Nevertheless, once libertarian legal principles have been thus derived and instituted, then ^*“initiated impositions” (i.e., infractions of liberty) can normally be interpreted in terms of breaching them. There is no need to return to the abstract theory and pre-legal implications except for philosophically problematic cases. This is why private-property libertarianism alone has so much intuitive verisimilitude and cogency; and it is, therefore, sometimes mistaken for the necessary and sufficient totality of libertarianism.

But what is the normative status of this positive philosophical theory of libertarianism and its implementation? For an answer to that we have to consider ^*liberty and morality.

(This is an entry from A Libertarian Dictionary: Explaining a Philosophical Theory [draft currently being revised]. Asterisks indicate other entries.)