REJOINDER TO ORWELLIAN LIBERTARIANISM: GORDON AND NJOYA’S TOPSY-TURVY WORLD OF TWILIGHT ZONE LIBERTARIANISM
Abstract
Gordon and Njoya, in their work "Orwellian Libertarianism: The Topsy-Turvy World of Walter Block," heavily criticize me on a variety of issues related to libertarian theory, including shields, swords, negative homesteading, Hamas, and Rothbard. This paper serves as my response to their critique. These two authors uniquely claim that libertarian philosophy is perfect as it currently stands and that any changes or alterations are inherently flawed. This is particularly interesting because both scholars have made significant and novel contributions to the philosophy of freedom, thereby contradicting their new thesis. Talk about being hoisted by your own petard. They are highly critical of my introduction of the concept of "negative homesteading" to libertarianism. However, they do not provide any substantial criticism of this idea; they only dismiss it because it is novel. This stick-in-the-mud viewpoint is very surprising and disappointing, especially coming from two world-class philosophers who have previously shown great innovation and open-mindedness in their academic pursuits.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12709/mest.13.13.02.02
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