Gary Chartier’s Anarchy and Legal Order is a defense of a left-libertarian anarchist market society and a critique of statism. Few people in the world are more sympathetic to Chartier’s conclusions than I. Indeed, for me, the choice between statism and anarchism ultimately comes down to consequences. I think there is a strong moral presumption in favor of anarchist market societies over the alternatives, and the only way to defeat this presumption is to show that the former won’t “work”. That is, statists need to show that anarchism won’t deliver sufficiently good consequences or would be a disaster in practice, while some alternative in the latter set will “work” much better. So, I am very much Chartier’s ideological ally. I think his basic conclusions are probably correct. However, in general, I think his main arguments for these conclusions are not successful, and that will be the focus of my critique here.
Controversial Ethics as a Foundation for Controversial Political Theory
Controversial Ethics as a Foundation for Controversial Political Theory
Recent Publications
- “Equal Opportunity, Not Reparations” in the Handbook of Equality of Opportunity (2024)
- “A Bayesian Solution to Hallsson’s Puzzle”
- Markets without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests, 2nd Edition
- “Optimizing political influence: a jury theorem with dynamic competence and dependence”
- Why not anarchism?
Recent News
- Advocacy group concerned pay-for-plasma clinics expanding to Ontario will hurt voluntary donations
- Jason Brennan and Hélène Landemore, Debating Democracy (University of Zurich’s UBS Center, 2024)
- Jason Brennan “Everything Wrong with Democracy” on the Alex O’Connor Podcast (January 28, 2024)
- On the affirmative action ruling, the Supreme Court got it half right
- Is the effective altruism movement in trouble?