Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

[…] Correctness” and “Western Civ,” which were a thing back then and, I guess, still are.  Uneasily aware of my inability to hold my own in bull sessions on the subject, I decided, in my […] LikeLike

Robert Hollander passed away on April 20th of this year, but having just learned the news about a week ago, I wanted, however belatedly, to mark the event. From Princeton Alumni Weekly: Robert Hollander, professor of European literature, and French and Italian, emeritus, and renowned scholar of Dante, died peacefully of natural causes at his…

In reply to <a href=”https://radicalclassicalliberals.com/2021/07/15/a-trilemma-for-taxation-is-theft-libertarians/comment-page-1/#comment-155″>Yang Venti</a>. More than, there’s more problems in that way of thought. If we are anti-conventionalists, even if we think that stealing from a thief is morally permissible (or at least isn’t as bad as ordinary theft), we should embrace view that almost all private seizure of property is morally permissible…

Isn’t there an extra crucial point in anti-conventionalist thesis? I mean, stealing from a thief is still morally wrong if the stealer isn’t going to return the property to its rightful owner. At least, i have somewhat strong intuitions, that wrongness of theft is much more about seizing what isn’t yours than harming a rightful…

In reply to <a href=”https://radicalclassicalliberals.com/2021/07/15/a-trilemma-for-taxation-is-theft-libertarians/comment-page-1/#comment-153″>Fabian Wendt</a>. >Thanks for the reply! You are welcome and thanks for your rejoinder. >>“Presume innocence until proof of guilt.” >Accepting this principle means accepting the moral relevance of current property conventions, as far as I can see. Morality isn’t mentioned, or implied, or relevant. A proper abstract theory of liberty…

In reply to <a href=”https://radicalclassicalliberals.com/2021/07/15/a-trilemma-for-taxation-is-theft-libertarians/comment-page-1/#comment-151″>J C Lester</a>. Thanks for the reply! “Presume innocence until proof of guilt.” Accepting this principle means accepting the moral relevance of current property conventions, as far as I can see. After all, it allows people to have moral property entitlements without a Lockean/Nozickian basis (without a clean title record going…