Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute
Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute
Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers - Ludwig von Mises Institute
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MURRAY N. ROTHBARD VS. THE PHILOSPHERS: UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS<br />
90 ON HAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, AND POLYANI<br />
like William Ogilvie 39 and Thomas Spence, and she is especially<br />
fond of a statist character like Thomas Pownall. 40 In<br />
short, while she is obviously extremely sympa<strong>the</strong>tic with <strong>the</strong><br />
Like <strong>the</strong> winds that come we know not whence, and blow<br />
whi<strong>the</strong>rsoever <strong>the</strong>y list, <strong>the</strong> forms of society are derived<br />
from an obscure and distant origin; <strong>the</strong>y arise, long<br />
before <strong>the</strong> date of philosophy, from <strong>the</strong> instincts, not<br />
from <strong>the</strong> speculations of men. . . . This is <strong>the</strong> simplest<br />
form under which we can consider <strong>the</strong> establishment of<br />
nations: and we ascribe to a previous design, what<br />
came to be known only by experience, what no human<br />
wisdom could foresee, and what, without <strong>the</strong> concurring<br />
humour and disposition of his age, no authority<br />
could enable an individual to execute. (An Essay on<br />
<strong>the</strong> History of Civil Society [Whitefish, Mont.:<br />
Kessinger Publishing, 2004], pp. 75–76)<br />
One of <strong>the</strong> characteristic aspects of his thought was a profound<br />
criticism of commercial society, which, he claimed, through <strong>the</strong> division<br />
of labor, alienated man, depriving him of his humanity. For Ferguson,<br />
<strong>the</strong> development of <strong>the</strong> mechanical arts and <strong>the</strong> growth of<br />
production and trade did not automatically lead to moral and political<br />
progress. The division of labor in <strong>the</strong> sphere of <strong>the</strong> state, fur<strong>the</strong>rmore,<br />
had led to <strong>the</strong> establishment of a standing army that, in<br />
Ferguson’s opinion, was yet ano<strong>the</strong>r instrument of oppression in <strong>the</strong><br />
hands of government. Ferguson <strong>the</strong>refore proposed <strong>the</strong> republican<br />
ideal of <strong>the</strong> citizen soldier. This explicitly recalled <strong>the</strong> values and<br />
ideas of <strong>the</strong> modern republican tradition. He thought that freedom<br />
could be kept alive not so much by constitutions and laws but ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
by <strong>the</strong> active participation of citizens in civil life.<br />
39William Ogilvie (1736–1819) taught philosophy at <strong>the</strong> Aberdeen<br />
University and was a supporter of <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory of <strong>the</strong> joint property of<br />
<strong>the</strong> earth.<br />
40Thomas Spence (1750–1814), an English radical, maintained<br />
that all land should be public. In 1792 he moved to London where<br />
he earned his living selling copies of The Rights of Man by Thomas<br />
Paine on street corners. He was arrested on several occasions for<br />
distributing seditious texts. In 1793, for a short time, he published<br />
<strong>the</strong> journal Pig’s Meat. He opened a shop selling books with radical<br />
ideas. He supported women’s rights.<br />
Thomas Pownall (1722–1805) was <strong>the</strong> author of Administration<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Colonies (1764), in which he supported <strong>the</strong> idea of a union of<br />
all <strong>the</strong> British dominions on <strong>the</strong> basis of common commercial interests.