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

LAW AND NATURE IN THE WORK OF MURRAY N. ROTHBARD 9
impossible to pronounce any judgment on political regimes.
Indeed, it should be recalled that Strauss is trying to restart
the search for the best regime and a just society at a moment
in history when Europe was being torn apart by Nazism. He
is thus trying to find an answer to the “Western moral and
political crisis” and to relaunch political philosophy, that is,
“the attempt truly to know both the nature of political
things, and the right, or good, political order.” 6 In this light,
the essay On Tyranny seems to take a stand against
tyranny—an absolute evil. With his analysis of Hiero by
Xenophon and his condemnation of the lack of any distinction
between the king and the tyrant in Machiavelli’s work,
Strauss is trying to show a way of warding off the dangers
of tyranny. In this case, therefore, Rothbard’s comments
regarding On Tyranny seem overly severe. By claiming not
only the possibility but also the right to pass value judgments,
Strauss is railing against value-free modern political
science. Strauss maintains that
the new political scientist as pure spectator is not
committed to any value; in particular, he is neutral
in the conflict between liberal democracy and its
enemies. . . . One is thus led to wonder whether
the distinction between facts and values, or the
assertion that no Ought can be derived from an
Is, is well founded. . . . We conclude that the “relativism”
accepted by the new political science
according to which values are nothing but objects
of desire is based on an insufficient analysis of the
Is . . . and furthermore that one’s opinion regarding
the character of the Is settles one’s opinion
regarding the character of the Ought. . . . At any
rate, if a man is of the opinion that as a matter of
fact all desires are of equal dignity, since we know
of no factual consideration which would entitle us
to assign different dignities to different desires,
6 Strauss, What is Political Philosophy? p. 12. See also Raimondo
Cubeddu, Giovanni Giorgini, and Flavia Monceri, “Leo Strauss sui
diritti naturali e il liberalismo,” Élites 2 (2004): 118–24.