Ideas of the contemporary novelist on capitalism, individual liberty, and free enterprise, illustrated by extracts from her four novels.

What is morally permissible, and what is morally obligatory? These questions form the core of a vast amount of philosophical reasoning. In his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant developed a basis for the answers. In this landmark work, the German philosopher asks what sort of maxim might function as a guide to appropriate action under a given set of circumstances. By universalizing such a maxim, would morally permissible behavior not become clear? Suppose that everyone were to (...) behave in accordance with this maxim. If everyone followed the maxim in the same way without harm to civilized culture, then the behavior would be morally permissible. But what if no one followed the maxim? Would civilization thereby be at risk? In such a case, the behavior would be morally obligatory. Kant's test, known as the Categorical Imperative, is a logical proof of the Golden Rule and the centerpiece of this work. It constitutes his best-known contribution to ethical discussion, and a familiarity with his reasoning in this book is essential to students of philosophy, religion, and history. (shrink)

The Law, original French title La Loi, is an 1850 book by Frédéric Bastiat. It was written at Mugron two years after the third French Revolution and a few months before his death of tuberculosis at age 49.

After reading this insightful and charming classic, no one can believe that there are any arguments left for the redistributionist. De Jouvenel devastates every claim for either logic or morality in their position... --Henry G. Manne, Dean, School of Law, George Mason University In this concise and elegant work, first published in 1952, Bertrand de Jouvenel purposely ignores the economic evidence that redistributional efforts sap incentives and are economically destructive. Rather, he stresses the commonly disregarded ethical arguments showing that redistribution (...) is ethically indefensible for, and practically unworkable in, a complex society. A new introduction relates Jouvenel's arguments to current discussions about the redistributionist state and draws out many of the points of affinity with the works of Buchanan, Hayek, Rawls, and others. John Gray is Emeritus Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. (shrink)

In this highly relevant and important contribution to the debate on the future of the welfare state, Stuart White reconsiders the principles of economic citizenship appropriate to a democratic society, and explores the radical implications of these principles for public policy.

This dissertation deals with the question of general political obligation. General political obligation is concerned with the question of whether citizens owe an obligation to states or political entities generally. This question is independent of whether citizens owe certain obligations to particular states under specific constitutions. ;The argument of the dissertation attempts to show that the individual receives benefits from the state that form both the grounds and also the limits of that obligation to the state. ;The first two chapters (...) of the dissertation explain and justify the State of Nature theory of classical social contract philosophy as a useful tool for analyzing political obligation. It then revises and updates that theory in the light of developments in game theory and economics. The dissertation attempts to establish the grounds and limits of general political obligation based upon the existence of: negative externalities or disutilities that would exist in the State of Nature, and positive externalities called public goods that are necessary to reduce the level of negative externalities. ;"Coercion" is defined and explained in Chapter 3, and the author's definition of coercion is defended against rival definitions of that term. ;In the fourth chapter "consent" is defined, and it is argued that individuals in the State of Nature would consent to a state in order to minimize the negative externalities that exist in the State of Nature. ;The remaining two chapters are concerned with establishing the limits of the coercive powers of the state based upon what individuals would have unanimously consented to in the State of Nature. It is argued that there are certain negative externalities called natural injuries that individuals, solely in virtue of their humanity, would wish to avoid. ;Two principles of political obligation are defended: The Nonaggression Principle--that one is obligated not to inflict natural injuries upon others. The Public Goods Principle--that individuals have an obligation to do their part in the maintenance of public goods that protect them from natural injury. (shrink)

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled "The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes". His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, which identified three basic philosophical positions on the issue (tax evasion is always unethical, sometimes unethical or never unethical). Since Crowe's dissertation, not much has been written on the topic of tax evasion from an ethical or religious perspective. The present paper is an empirical study, the (...) goal of which is to determine the strength of the 15 arguments justifying tax evasion that Crowe identified plus 3 more recent arguments. A survey was constructed using a seven-point Likert scale that included all three positions and all 18 arguments and distributed to 319 business students at a university in the South Texas area. The 18 arguments were ranked in terms of strength, from strongest to weakest. Comparisons were also made according to gender, age, student status, residence, major, ethnicity and religion to determine if the viewpoints for these demographics were significantly different. (shrink)