What philosophers throughout the years (and contemporary ones) do you think promoted libertarianism through their thought, and what philosophers do you think were the most...anti-libertarian? I can think of some anti-libertarian thinkers (Marx, Hegel, Owen, Sartre, Zizek, blah blah blah).
I'd start with the Greeks; Sophists, Plato and Aristotle. Then just follow the story of history (A.K.A. skip the Medieval Era or just read St. Augustine and/or St. Aquinas for the Catholic period. Then maybe Francis Bacon (induction), Descartes (knowing & rational epistemology), Locke (empiricism, epistemology) Hutcheson (Kant's moral lessons / Cristianized Stoicism), Hume (cognition, contra-induction, empiricism, epistemology), Smith (morals, economics), then Kant).
Thanks for the list. What i was looking for.
“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence.""The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”
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Aristophanes, are you into reading Nietzsche?
I've not really read anything from Nietzsche. I will read some of his aesthetics and morals after Schopenhauer.
From my reading so far into Mencken's book on Nietzsche, it looks like a lot of Nietzsche's philosophy evolved out of Schopenhauer's thought, where Nietzsche's primary distinction was that he rejected Schopenhauer's pessimism. So far I'm finding Camus and his thought to be a lot less complex than Nietzsche, requiring a lot less "studying."
I figured you cannot leave Descartes out
Certainly not - like him or not, cutting out Descartes would be like cutting out Plato or Aristotle he's that important (and arguably even more so) when looking at the history of philosophy, it's odd that many people don't seem to get that.
Schopenhauer is funny, he's a crotchty old coot. I think in his will he gave money to the survivors of the 1848 uprisings; not the revolutionaries mind you, but the soldiers who shot them. As far as his influence is concerned, I wouldn't be so sure to say no one listened to him - it was probably a bit more subtle but very improtant influence on the whole "German irrationalism" thing. Eduard von Hartmann, Nietzsche, and Wagner owe a debt to the man.
"As in a kaleidoscope, the constellation of forces operating in the system as a whole is ever changing." - Ludwig Lachmann
"When A Man Dies A World Goes Out of Existence" - GLS Shackle
Another cute little trick that we did in my Philo 101 class was to do dichotomies for every era so it would look something like this:
Plato v Aristotle
Augustine v Aquinas
Descartes v Bacon (or Locke)
Hume v Kant
and if you want to go overboard:
Hegel v Schopenhaur (?) - one may even wnt to throw in Russell or William James here?
Sartre wasn't anti-libertarian. His whole work is about individual freedom. He dabbled with Marxism for a time, but it was really a mistake. I think he was closer to anarchism.
Really, the only anti-libertarian philosophers are Hobbes, Hegel, Machiavelli, Plato, and Aquinas. Marx is not a philosopher, and even said so.
What would be the evidence for your assertion?