Murray N. Rothbard vs. the Philosophers: Unpublished Writings on Hayek, Mises, Strauss, and ...

180 Pages·2009·0.94 MB·English

by  Roberta A. Modugno

M N. R
URRAY OTHBARD
. P
VS THE HILOSOPHERS
UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS ON HAYEK, MISES,
STRAUSS, AND POLANYI

M N. R
URRAY OTHBARD
. P
VS THE HILOSOPHERS
UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS ON HAYEK, MISES,
STRAUSS, AND POLANYI
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY ROBERTA A. MODUGNO
LvMI
LUDWIG VON MISES
© 2009 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published
under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue
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mises.org
ISBN: 978-1-933550-46-6
Contents
PREFACE BY DAVID GORDON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
INTRODUCTION: LAW AND NATURE IN THE WORK OF
MURRAY N. ROTHBARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Rothbard’s Unpublished Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Rothbard on Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Criticism of the Subjectivism of Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Criticism of Hayek: Historical Rights
and Natural Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Criticism of the Concept of Coercion in Hayek . . . . . . . . .38
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS BY MURRAY NEWTON ROTHBARD . . . .47
1. Letter on Rugged Individualism
by George B. Cutten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
2. Confidential Memo to the Volker Fund on
F.A. Hayek’sConstitution of Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
3. Letter on The Constitution of Liberty
by F.A. von Hayek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
4. Review of Lionel Robbins, The Great Depression . . . . .79
5. Letter on The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman
by Caroline Robbins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
6. Letter on What is Political Philosophy?
by Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
7. Letter on Thoughts on Machiavelliby Leo Strauss . . . .96
8. Letter on On Tyrannyby Leo Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . .102
9. The Symposium on Relativism: A Critique . . . . . . . . .104
10. On Polanyi’s The Great Transformation . . . . . . . . . .121
v
MURRAYN. ROTHBARDVS. THEPHILOSOPHERS: UNPUBLISHEDWRITINGS
vi ONHAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, ANDPOLYANI
CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND WORKS
OF MURRAY NEWTON ROTHBARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Selected Writings by Murray N. Rothbard . . . . . . . . . .151
Writings on Murray N. Rothbard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
Writings of a General Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157
P
REFACE
ROBERTA MODUGNO HAS IN HER scholarly career made a habit
of “getting there first.” She wrote the first book in any lan-
guage on the thought of Murray Rothbard, Murray N. Roth-
bard e l’anarco-capitalismo americano, published by Rubbet-
tino in 1998, and she also is the author of the first Italian
book on Mary Wollstonecraft’s political thought. In the pres-
ent book, she has once more led the way.
Murray Rothbard was a prolific scholar, as a mere glance
at his bibliography will disclose. But his published books and
articles, even including those that have appeared posthu-
mously, do not exhaust his scholarly contributions. When he
died in January 1995, he left his papers and correspondence
to the Mises Institute. The most important of these papers,
from the point of view of libertarian scholarship, consist of
reports he wrote when he worked for the William Volker
Fund. In these reports, Rothbard commented on a wide vari-
ety of subjects, including economics, history, political theory,
philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. Like Terence, Roth-
bard could say, “Nothing human is alien to me.” These reports
often provide more details of his views on particular points
than are available from his published books; in some cases,
these reports raise altogether new issues.
It is Roberta Modugno’s great merit to have been the first
scholar to make some of this material available to the public.
After she gained access to the unpublished papers, she pub-
lished (also with Rubbettino) a selection of them, translated
vii
MURRAYN. ROTHBARDVS. THEPHILOSOPHERS: UNPUBLISHEDWRITINGS
viii ONHAYEK, MISES, STRAUSS, ANDPOLYANI
into Italian, in 2005. The present book is the first publica-
tion of these papers in their original English.
Besides the papers, the book includes Professor Mod-
ugno’s scholarly introduction, which stresses Rothbard’s
relations to the thought of Leo Strauss and Friedrich von
Hayek. In addition, she has provided detailed explanatory
notes to the selections.
Even experienced students of Rothbard will learn much
from this book. His criticism of social Darwinism in the first
selection is of classic stature; and he makes a searching crit-
icism of Hayek on the rule of law. In his discussion of Car-
oline Robbins, his amazing depth of scholarship is present
in full force. Although Robbins had just completed the first
comprehensive study of British classical liberalism in the
eighteenth century, Rothbard was able to correct and add to
her findings.
The nine selections published here form only a small
sample of the unpublished papers; future books will make
many more of them available. But Roberta Modugno was
there first.
DAVID GORDON
Ludwig von Mises Institute
I
NTRODUCTION
L N W
AW AND ATURE IN THE ORK OF
M N. R
URRAY OTHBARD