Against Politics

Toward a depoliticized society

Thomas Ligotti, Karl Popper and antinatalism

In his recently published non-fiction work The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror the contemporary horror writer Thomas Ligotti takes Karl Popper’s “negative utilitarianism” to its ultimate conclusion: One who did not balk entirely was the Austrian-born British philosopher Karl Popper, who in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) did have [...]

Anything that’s peaceful

Libertarians spend a non-trivial amount of time arguing for the obvious. At best, such arguments are redundant because there is no widespread believe that violence or threats of violence are a good thing. At worst, these debates hurt the prospects for a society with less violence because theories about the existence of  “natural rights” are [...]

Social contract, free ride

The publisher Liberty Fund has republished Anthony de Jasay’s book “Social Contract, Free Ride: A Study of the Public Goods Problem.” In this book, de Jasay, one of the most original and sharpest political philosophers of our age, offers a critical review of the public goods argument for the state. He argues that a) economists [...]

The minimalist future of ethics

Is ethics a science? Can there be progress in ethics similar to the progress we observe in science? In this brief article it is argued that traditional approaches to ethics are lacking. A minimalist “economic” approach, as suggested in the writings of the (Hobbesian) contractarian philosopher David Gauthier, is presented. It concludes by discussing the [...]