[HOME] [BOOKS] [ORDERING] [JOURNALS] [ABSTRACTS] [LINKS] [SPECIAL OFFERS]

Edward Garrett: "All Done With Mirrors" (a review of Alan Haworth's Anti Libertarianism: Markets, Philosophy, and Myth, London and New York: Routledge, 1994), Res Publica III/1 (1997), 121-127: Alan Haworth's book is a timely and thorough analysis of libertarian theory. This review attempts to do two things. (1) It gives a close critical account of Haworth's discussion of the fundamentals of libertarian thought, in particular his argument that libertarianism rests on three theses (the reducibility thesis, the invisible hand thesis, and the freedom thesis), that are too insubstantial to bear the theoretical weight placed upon them. (2) It attempts to suggest that there is a further, more significant aspect to Haworth's critique which involves him considering how libertarian 'theory' (for whether it is a coherent philosophical theory is precisely what is at stake) tries to revise our notions of who we are and what our morality might be, through the creation of what is essentially a libertarian mythology. By separating out these two aspects to the book the review attempts to show how the first aspect might be better understood when informed by the second.

[HOME] [BOOKS] [ORDERING] [JOURNALS] [ABSTRACTS] [LINKS] [SPECIAL OFFERS]