Property and the Pursuit of Happiness

Property and the Pursuit of Happiness PDF Author: Edward J. Erler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538130874
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, Edward Erler brings a lifetime of study of political philosophy, the American founding, and the US constitution to the central role of property in American constitutional thought. Erler argues that the Founders considered the natural right to property as the comprehensive right that included every other right. In this sense they followed political philosopher John Locke, but at the same time made significant improvements on Locke, making it moral and political, something they called the “pursuit of happiness.” In the past century, this understanding of the right to property—derived from the principles of the Declaration of Independence—has been challenged by the rise of progressivism, which places promoting community welfare above the protection of individual rights as the central role of government. This has led to the administrative state’s unrelenting attacks on the right to private property, which have effectively ended the right to property as it was understood by the founders. Property and the Pursuit of Happiness offers a learned and wide-ranging discussion of the values at the core of America’s founding that will be of interest to all readers seeking to understand the founders’ vision and the profound challenges to it today.

Property and the Pursuit of Happiness

Property and the Pursuit of Happiness PDF Author: Edward J. Erler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538130874
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, Edward Erler brings a lifetime of study of political philosophy, the American founding, and the US constitution to the central role of property in American constitutional thought. Erler argues that the Founders considered the natural right to property as the comprehensive right that included every other right. In this sense they followed political philosopher John Locke, but at the same time made significant improvements on Locke, making it moral and political, something they called the “pursuit of happiness.” In the past century, this understanding of the right to property—derived from the principles of the Declaration of Independence—has been challenged by the rise of progressivism, which places promoting community welfare above the protection of individual rights as the central role of government. This has led to the administrative state’s unrelenting attacks on the right to private property, which have effectively ended the right to property as it was understood by the founders. Property and the Pursuit of Happiness offers a learned and wide-ranging discussion of the values at the core of America’s founding that will be of interest to all readers seeking to understand the founders’ vision and the profound challenges to it today.

Design for Liberty

Design for Liberty PDF Author: Richard A. Epstein
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674063058
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Get Book Here

Book Description
Following a vast expansion in the twentieth century, government is beginning to creak at the joints under its enormous weight. The signs are clear: a bloated civil service, low approval ratings for Congress and the President, increasing federal-state conflict, rampant distrust of politicians and government officials, record state deficits, and major unrest among public employees. In this compact, clearly written book, the noted legal scholar Richard Epstein advocates a much smaller federal government, arguing that our over-regulated state allows too much discretion on the part of regulators, which results in arbitrary, unfair decisions, rent-seeking, and other abuses. Epstein bases his classical liberalism on the twin pillars of the rule of law and of private contracts and property rights—an overarching structure that allows private property to keep its form regardless of changes in population, tastes, technology, and wealth. This structure also makes possible a restrained public administration to implement limited objectives. Government continues to play a key role as night-watchman, but with the added flexibility in revenues and expenditures to attend to national defense and infrastructure formation. Although no legal system can eliminate the need for discretion in the management of both private and public affairs, predictable laws can cabin the zone of discretion and permit arbitrary decisions to be challenged. Joining a set of strong property rights with sound but limited public administration could strengthen the rule of law, with its virtues of neutrality, generality, clarity, consistency, and forward-lookingness, and reverse the contempt and cynicism that have overcome us.

Liberty and Property

Liberty and Property PDF Author: Ludwig Von Mises
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN: 1610164075
Category : Capitalism
Languages : en
Pages : 54

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Originally delivered as a lecture at Princeton University, October 1958, at the 9th meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society"--Page 7. Includes bibliographical references.

Liberty, Property, and the Foundations of the American Constitution

Liberty, Property, and the Foundations of the American Constitution PDF Author: Ellen Frankel Paul
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887069154
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cover title: Liberty, property & the foundations of the American constitution. Includes bibliographies and index.

On Civil Liberty and Self-government

On Civil Liberty and Self-government PDF Author: Francis Lieber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 644

Get Book Here

Book Description


Declaring Independence

Declaring Independence PDF Author: Jay Fliegelman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804720762
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Preoccupied with the spectacle of sincerity, the quest for a natural language led paradoxically to a greater theatricalization of public speaking as well as to a new social dramaturgy and a deeply self-conscious performative understanding of selfhood. Concerned with recovering what was assumed but not spoken in the realm of eighteenth-century speech and action, the book treats Jefferson (whose fascination with Homer, Ossian, Patrick Henry, and music theory all relate to the new oratorical ideal) as a conflicted participant in the new rhetoric and a witness to its social costs and benefits

Our Ageless Constitution

Our Ageless Constitution PDF Author: W. David Stedman
Publisher: National Book Network
ISBN: 9780937047255
Category : Constitutional history
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description


An Inquiry Into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

An Inquiry Into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue PDF Author: Francis Hutcheson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aesthetics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Meaning of Property

The Meaning of Property PDF Author: Jedediah Purdy
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300156162
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the bestselling author of For Common Things, a brilliant and ambitious rethinking of the meaning of property in democratic society In his latest book, Jedediah Purdy takes up a question of deep and lasting importance: why is property ownership a value to society? His answer returns us to the foundations of American society and enables us to interpret the writings of the patron saint of liberal economics, Adam Smith, in a wholly new light. Unlike Milton Friedman and other free-market scholars, who consider property a key to efficient markets, Purdy draws upon Smith’s theories to argue that the virtues of wealth are social rather than economic. In Purdy’s view, ownership does much more than shield one from government interference. Property shapes social life in ways that bring us closer to, or take us farther from, the ideal of a community of free and equal members. This view of property is neither libertarian nor communitarian but treats the community as the precondition of individual freedom. This view informed U.S. law in the early days of the republic, Purdy writes, and it is one that we need to restore today. Touching upon some of the most charged issues in American politics and law, including slavery, inheritance, international development, and climate change, The Meaning of Property offers a compelling new view of property and freedom and enriches our understanding of democratic society.

No Treason (Volume 1)

No Treason (Volume 1) PDF Author: Lysander Spooner
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447488903
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 70

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published in 1870, this essay by the American anarchist and political philosopher Lysander Spooner is here reproduced. Described by Murray Rothbard as "the greatest case for anarchist political philosophy ever written", Spooner's lengthy essay is still referenced by anarchists and philosophers today. In it, he argues that the American Civil War violated the US Constitution, thus rendering it null and void. An indispensable read for political historians both amateur and professional alike. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.