Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute

MURRAY N. ROTHBARD VS. THE PHILOSPHERS: UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS
120 ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLYANI
Final Comments
On the whole, I think this can be set down as another
successful Volker Fund symposium. There were many firstrate
papers, even if they were not always correct. Profound
and basic controversies, such as those between Leoni and
Mises against Strauss on relativism and relativist ethics,
help rather than hurt the symposium as a whole, for the
reader has a chance to read and weigh excellent presentations
of both sides of this critical issue. Of the twelve
papers, I consider six as first rate: those of Carmichael,
Leoni, Mises, Pei, Strauss, and Vivas. . . . 71 Three could be
considered fair, or moderately good: Casserley, Tietz, and
Weaver. Only three I would rate as downright poor:
Schoeck, Malin, and Zirkle, especially the latter two—
Schoeck for his lengthy diatribe against individual liberty,
Malin for his wallowing in a confused mysticism and his worship
of primitive man, Zirkle for his extreme (and relativist)
espousal of a social Darwinist, evolutionist ethic. I think this
is a good record for an interdisciplinary gathering of such
varied individuals from such diverse disciplines.
71 For the purposes of this book, I have only included Rothbard’s
critiques for five of the articles that he considered first rate. The
sixth is Mario Pei’s “Relativism in Linguistics.”