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This collection of essays explores the ways in which the defense of liberty can be bolstered by use of a dialectical method-that is, a mode of analysis devoted to grasping the full context of philosophical, cultural, and social factors requisite to the sustenance of human freedom. Its strength lies in the variety of disciplines and perspectives represented by contributors who apply explicitly dialectical tools to a classical liberal / libertarian analysis of social and cultural issues. In its conjoining of a dialectical method, typically associated with the socialist left, to a defense of individual liberty, typically associated with the libertarian right, this anthology challenges contemporary attitudes on both ends of the political spectrum. Though this conjunction of dialectics and liberty has been explored before in several works, including a trilogy of books written by one of our coeditors (Chris Matthew Sciabarra), this volume will be the first one of its kind to bring together accomplished scholars in political science, economics, philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, law, history, education, and rhetoric.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism
Chapter 2: Freedom and Flourishing: Toward a Synthesis of Traditions and Disciplines
Chapter 3: The Unchained Dialectic and the Renewal of Libertarian Inquiry
Chapter 4: Whence Natural Rights?
Chapter 5: Dialogical Arguments for Libertarian Rights
Chapter 6: Dialectical Psychology: The Road to Dépassement
Chapter 7: Don Lavoie's Dialectical Liberalism
Chapter 8: Free Speech, Rhetoric, and a Free Economy
Chapter 9: Exploring the Interconnections of Politics, Economics, and Culture
Chapter 10: Context Matters: Finding a Home for Labor-Managed Enterprise
Chapter 11: The Dialectic of Culture and Markets in Expanding Family Freedom
Chapter 12: Up from Oppression: Triumph and Tragedy in the Great American Songbook
Chapter 13: Why Libertarians Should Be Social Justice Warriors
Chapter 14: Radical Liberalism and Social Liberation
Chapter 15: Social Equality and Liberty
Chapter 16: Formal vs. Substantive Statism: A Matter of Context
Chapter 17: The Political Is Interpersonal:
An Interpretation and Defense of Libertarian Immediatism
Chapter 18: Aesthetics, Ritual, Property, and Fish:
A Dialectical Approach to the Evolutionary Foundations of Property
About the author
Edited by Roger E. Bissell; Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Edward W. Younkins - Contributions by Chris Matthew Sciabarra; Edward W. Younkins; John F. Welsh; Douglas J. Den Uyl; Douglas B. Rasmussen; Stephan Kinsella; Robert L. Campbell; Nathan Goodman; Deird
Summary
These essays explore ways that liberty can be better defended using a dialectical approach. In addition to libertarian theory and dialectics, some of the areas examined include evolutionary biology, psychology, economics, and sociology of the family and of American popular songs, social justice, and political change.
