Debating Libertarianism - What Makes Society Just?

Debating Libertarianism offers readers a sustained debate between two leading political philosophers over which vision of society--Rawlsian left-liberalism or libertarianism--is best and most just. In this crucial and timely book, Samuel Freeman and Jason Brennan consider both fundamental questions of justice and issues of applied policy.

List of contents

• PART 1: The Case Against


• Samuel Freeman


• Introduction


• Chapter 1: Liberalism and Libertarianism


• Chapter 2: Ideal Libertarianism and the Orthodox View


• Chapter 3: Liberal Libertarianism


• Chapter 4: Neoliberalism--the Intersection of Classical Liberalism and Libertarianism


• Chapter 5: High Liberalism and Distributive Justice


• PART 2: The Case For


• Jason Brennan


• Introduction


• Chapter 6: Rawlsian Liberalism: Why Not


• Chapter 7: Why Not Libertarianism?


• Chapter 8: Anti-Social Democracy: A Libertarian Left-Wing Critique


• PART 3: Responses


• Chapter 9: Response to Brennan


• Chapter 10: Response to Freeman


• Part 1 Bibliography


• Part 2 Bibliography


• Index

About the author

Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of strategy, economics, ethics, and public policy at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He is the author of seventeen books, including Cracks in the Ivory Tower (2019), When All Else Fails (2018), In Defense of Openness (2018), and Against Democracy (2016).

Samuel Freeman is the Avalon Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Liberalism and Distributive Justice (2018), Justice and the Social Contract (2007), and Rawls (2007). He edited The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (2003), Rawls's Lectures in the History of Political Philosophy (2008), and John Rawls's Collected Papers (1999). He is the editor of the Oxford Political Philosophy Series and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Product details

• Authors: Jason Brennan, Samuel (Avalon Professor Emeritus in the Freeman, Samuel R Freeman, Samuel R. Freeman, Samuel R. (Avalon Professor Emeritus in t Freeman, Freeman Samuel
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 22.08.2025
• EAN: 9780197540879
• ISBN: 978-0-19-754087-9
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Debating Ethics
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Libertarianism, Social & political philosophy, Political science & theory, Ethics & moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Political science and theory, Libertarianism and libertarian ideologies and movements