ABSTRACTS BIOGRAPHIES ENDORSEMENTS REVIEWS FB DISCUSSION SCHEDULE
ROGER E. BISSELL, CHRIS MATTHEW SCIABARRA, EDWARD W. YOUNKINS, EDS.
THE DIALECTICS OF LIBERTY:
EXPLORING THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN FREEDOM
THE
JOURNAL OF AYN RAND STUDIES 20, no. 2 (December 2020):
328-39
By Allen Mendenhall
Allen Mendenhall writes:
"Sciabarra has developed the concept of 'dialectical libertarianism' over the course of his nearly forty-year career. The number of contributors to this volume---nineteen in all---testifies to his mounting success. There was a time when pairing the terms 'dialectical' and 'libertarianism' would not only have raised eyebrows but also have earned you a one-way ticket out of professional acceptability. Thanks to Sciabarra, the parameters of suitable opinion have widened while the rigor and originality of libertarian scholarship have improved. ...
"The ... chapters ... are broad in scope, treating such expansive and seminal concepts as freedom, reality, and human flourishing and such elemental philosophical fields as logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ontology. They send a message, namely that the editors are "thinking big," calling into question whole schools of thought and promoting approaches to inquiry that are primary, essential, and comprehensive. They're hitting the reset button."
Mendenhall surveys all the contributions to the volume in all their diversity. He concludes:
"DOL is a wide-ranging volume colored with the unique voices and personalities of its various contributors. Yet it is united in purpose and models the dialectical method that it celebrates. [Contributor John F.] Welsh registers a memorable line that supplies fitting closure to this review. 'A volume dedicated to the "dialectics of liberty,"' he states, 'provides a wonderful opportunity to explore not only the interstices at which dialectical and libertarian theory overlap, but how the two might enhance each other for the benefit of advocacy for individual freedom, free markets, and minimal government.'
"I concur. And The Dialectics of Liberty: Exploring the Context of Human Freedom is that volume."
