Ignorance and Liberty

ISBN-13: 9780415285735 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 224 str.

Leonore Davidoff; Lorenzo Infantino

Opis

There is a long line, running from antiquity to the present day, which unites all those who believe in an open society. This school of thought bases the demand for liberty on the recognition of human ignorance; we need to be free because we are ignorant and fallible. Free social co-operation permits us to mobilize our knowledge and develop methods of discovery through which we can explore the unknown and continually correct our errors. To assent to free co-operation is to accept critical discussion, democracy and the market, and in this way we are able to increase our rationality and further political and economic development. Improvement in the conditions of our lives, therefore, does not come from the omniscience attributed to some enlightened legislator or planner.

Spis treści

1. Introduction  2. The Liberty of the Ancients Compared With That of Moderns  3. The Gnoseological Roots of Liberty and Tribalism  4. The Failure of Psycologism and the Question of Private Property  5. Mandeville and The Scottish Moralists: The Discovery of Society as a Spontaneous Order  6. Austrian Marginalism: The Limits of Knowledge and Society as a Spontaneous Order  7. The Intellectualistic Hubris and the Destruction of Liberty

O autorze

Lorenzo Infantino