Steven Dutch had some critique about the libertarian party that made sense to me. Plus there are some philosophical critiques I think I saw on Edward Fesser. Plus Dr Kelley Ross left that party for enough good reasons. While getting back to the actual Constitution of the USA is important I do not think the libertarian party would do so. I think Trump would do so.
The Edward Fesser critique I think was based on the idea of desert island with two people: "Suppose, for example, that you and I are castaways and wash up on some tiny island upon which no human beings have ever trod. You immediately pass out on the beach, while I get to work constructing a bamboo fence whose perimeter happens entirely to enclose your body. Upon waking, you accuse me of imprisoning you and thereby violating your self-ownership rights, and demand to be released. Suppose I then respond as follows: “I have not imprisoned you at all! I’ve simply homesteaded all the land around you -- which you had no right to, since it was virgin territory -- and I’ve built a fence around it, to make sure you don’t come onto my land and take any of the resources I’ve justly acquired. True, you’ve got nothing in the way of resources in the seven-foot by four-foot plot of sand I’ve left you, but that’s not my fault. That’s just your bad luck, sorry. I suppose it would be nice of me to give you some of mine, but at most I’d be unkind rather than unjust if I decide not to do so. And I was very careful not to touch you as I built my fence. I do respect your right of self-ownership, after all!' "
See also
A major philosopher of the Libertarians in Ann Rand and she is a great writer, but a sloppy thinker as Dr Michael Huemer pointed out in his critique.
The deepest and most thorough of all these people is Kelley Ross. Edward Fesser is pretty much up there with him in sheer intellectual power, but slightly less because less thorough. Michael Huemer is simply brilliant but I put him in third place after the first two. Not because of intellect. He is maybe smarter than the first two but the first two are more thorough and take longer to get to a conclusion.
I wondered for a long time what Kelley Ross would say about Huemer. Two Titans. Finally I found out in a letter and also in an essay. Which was along the lines of what I had been thinking anyway.
The Edward Fesser critique I think was based on the idea of desert island with two people: "Suppose, for example, that you and I are castaways and wash up on some tiny island upon which no human beings have ever trod. You immediately pass out on the beach, while I get to work constructing a bamboo fence whose perimeter happens entirely to enclose your body. Upon waking, you accuse me of imprisoning you and thereby violating your self-ownership rights, and demand to be released. Suppose I then respond as follows: “I have not imprisoned you at all! I’ve simply homesteaded all the land around you -- which you had no right to, since it was virgin territory -- and I’ve built a fence around it, to make sure you don’t come onto my land and take any of the resources I’ve justly acquired. True, you’ve got nothing in the way of resources in the seven-foot by four-foot plot of sand I’ve left you, but that’s not my fault. That’s just your bad luck, sorry. I suppose it would be nice of me to give you some of mine, but at most I’d be unkind rather than unjust if I decide not to do so. And I was very careful not to touch you as I built my fence. I do respect your right of self-ownership, after all!' "
See also
A major philosopher of the Libertarians in Ann Rand and she is a great writer, but a sloppy thinker as Dr Michael Huemer pointed out in his critique.
The deepest and most thorough of all these people is Kelley Ross. Edward Fesser is pretty much up there with him in sheer intellectual power, but slightly less because less thorough. Michael Huemer is simply brilliant but I put him in third place after the first two. Not because of intellect. He is maybe smarter than the first two but the first two are more thorough and take longer to get to a conclusion.
I wondered for a long time what Kelley Ross would say about Huemer. Two Titans. Finally I found out in a letter and also in an essay. Which was along the lines of what I had been thinking anyway.
