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

MURRAY N. ROTHBARD VS. THE PHILOSPHERS: UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS
86 ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLYANI
curious neglect of Hutcheson’s teacher, Gershom
Carmichael. 31 ) And later on, we see how these influences tie
in with the later “radical” libertarians, such as Earl Stanhope,
Major John Cartwright, John Jebb, Capel Lofft, and the
great Richard Price. 32
immediate interest, i.e., judgments formulated in view of the public
good. Hutcheson thought that it was the right of any individual to enjoy
the fruits of his own labor and therefore that society had to guarantee
private property in the public interest. An equally important idea of his
was the division of labor as a form of cooperation. Among his works,
see An Inquiry Concerning the Origin of Our Ideas of Virtue or Moral
Good (1725) and A System of Moral Philosophy (1755).
31Gershom Carmichael (c. 1672–1729) was an early figure in the
Scottish Enlightenment. After his studies at the University of Edinburgh,
he became rector at the University of St. Andrews and later at
the University of Glasgow. Then, in 1727, he became the first professor
of moral philosophy at Glasgow. He inaugurated the teaching of
economics and introduced into Scotland the study of the theorists of
natural law, including Grotius and Pufendorf. As an assigned text, he
employed De officio hominis et civis by Pufendorf, editing two editions,
one in 1718 and another in 1724. In his comments, Carmichael gave
ample attention to economic questions relating to money, prices, and
taxes, in particular supporting the theory that it was the scarcity of a
good that determined its value.
32Charles Stanhope (1753–1816) supported the campaign for
parliamentary reform, the extension of suffrage, and the abolition of
discriminatory laws against religious dissenters. He joined forces
with radicals such as Jebb and Cartwright. He was known for his
republican ideas, and sympathized with both the American and
French Revolutions.
John Cartwright (1740–1824) was part of the movement of radicals
and dissenters in favor of parliamentary reform. The aims of the
movement were the abolition of the Test Act and the Corporation Act,
which, by requiring religious conformism for those in public office,
were in practice discriminatory laws against religious dissenters. At
the center of the debate on the reforms were the extension of suffrage,
an increase in the frequency of elections, and the abolition of
the so-called “rotten boroughs.” The reform campaign was led by
Charles James Fox from inside Parliament, and by Christopher Wyvill
and Cartwright from the outside. Cartwright, in 1776, published the
famous Take Your Choice! His main ideas were the introduction of
universal male suffrage, the secret ballot, annual elections, and
equality among electoral districts. He influenced radical thought in