TOWARD A DIALECTICAL LIBERTARIANISM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments  ix

Introduction  1

Part One: Dialectics: History and Meaning  17

Chapter One: Aristotle: The Fountainhead  19

        Plato and the Stillbirth of a Tradition  21

        Aristotle and the Topics  26

        Aristotle's Conception of Dialectic  28

        The Revolt Against Plato's Ontology  34

        Organic Unity  37

        Aristotle in the History of Dialectic   42

Chapter Two: From Aristotle to Hegel  49

        Sclerotic Scholastics?  50

        Kantian Schizophrenia   55

        The Problem of Hegel   59

        Hegel's Conception of Dialectic   61

        To Be or Not To Be a Contradiction   68

        Dialectical Unity   71

        Hegelian Pitfalls   76

Chapter Three: After Hegel   83

        The Marxist Tradition  84

        From Neo-Idealism to Postmodernism  100

        Beyond the Atom: The Organic Legacy of Classical Liberalism   111

        The Ascendancy of Dialectical Libertarianism:  Mises, Hayek, and Rand   122

Chapter Four: Defining Dialectics   141

        Methodological Orientations  143

        Strict Atomism   156

        Strict Organicism   162

        Dualism and Monism   166

        Dialectics   171

        Unpacking the Definition   178

Part Two: Libertarian Crossroads: The Case of Murray Rothbard  189

Chapter Five: Foundations   191

        Defining Libertarianism  191

        The Libertarian Tradition  195

        The Life and Impact of Murray Rothbard  200

        Rothbard's Axioms  206

        The Personal Versus the Political  215

        The Voluntary Versus the Coercive  220

        Crusoe Social Philosophy  223

        The Contractual Versus the Hegemonic  230

Chapter Six: The Market versus the State   235

        Polar Analysis  237

        The Legacy of Oppenheimer and Nock  240

        Law Versus State  245

        War and Taxation  247

        The Ideology of "Public Goods"  249

        Capitalism Versus Socialism  258

        Liberty Versus Power  264

Chapter Seven: Class Dynamics and Structural Crisis   267

        A Libertarian Theory of Class  268

        Which Comes First:  The Class Chicken or the State Egg?  271

        Interventionism  276

        Calculational Chaos  279

        Monopoly  282

        The Politics of Money  287

        The State-Banking Nexus  295

        Boom and Bust  298

        The Welfare-Warfare State  300

        Endogenous Versus Exogenous Models  303

Chapter Eight: On the Precipice of Utopia   309

        Political Technique  309

        Anarcho-Capitalism  322

        A Framework for Utopias  335

        The Critics  340

        A Problem of Human Will?  349

        Liberty Plus  355

Chapter Nine:  The Dialectical Libertarian Turn  363

        Rethinking Foundations  364

        Dialogical Models  367

        The Austrian Resurgence  374

        Randian Radicalism  379

Epilogue:  Social Change Within a Context  385

References  391

Index  439