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

MURRAY N. ROTHBARD VS. THE PHILOSOPHERS: UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS
16 ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLYANI
subjective nature that could be considered neither true nor
false. Rothbard disagrees with this view of ethics; one problem
he sees with it is that it appeals only to subjective values
to convince others that the best social system is the market
economy. Mises thinks that the choice of the free market
should be based on the consequences of such a preference.
While not denying that value judgments are the
expression of essentially subjective choices, Mises thinks
that practically any informed person would choose the free
market. In contrast, Rothbard holds that certain facts
regarding human nature will produce objective judgments
about what is best for man. Moreover, Rothbard does not
consider Mises’s main arguments regarding capitalism fully
satisfactory. Mises’s attempt to found capitalism on a subjective
basis, albeit valid as far as it goes, requires a further
supporting argument.
Rothbard is one of those authors who maintains that, in
practice, few of our judgments are “pure” in the sense required
by the facts-values dichotomy. Although it is not possible to
derive prescriptive statements from facts, we can derive them
from judgments on facts. This is Strauss and Philippa Foot’s
position. 21 Besides this, in Rothbard’s opinion, there are
self-evident truths able to provide a basis for an objective
ethics. The ownership of oneself, of one’s own body, is an
example of such a truth. Mises rejects this position; and
according to his way of thinking, criteria for objectively evaluating
value judgments do not exist:
The ultimate end of action is always the satisfaction
of some desires of the acting man. Since
nobody is in a position to substitute his own value
judgments for those of the acting individual, it is
vain to pass judgment on other people’s aims and
volitions. No man is qualified to declare what
21 See Strauss, Natural Right and History (Los Angeles and
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978); Philippa Foot,
Virtues and Vices (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978) and Natural Goodness
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001).