Abstract: The point of this book is to exhibit the deficiencies in the classical and neoclassical arguments that underpin the claim that a territorial monopoly of force is both desirable and inevitable to ground the supposedly public goods of law and defence. When you have finished reading this book, you might be inclined to think that it is really a not-too-thinly disguised argument for libertarian anarchism, and in thinking this you would not be far wrong. However, although the book is strongly, very strongly, sympathetic to libertarian anarchist concerns, its point of departure is neither ethics nor politics but economics, specifically economics in the Austrian praxeological tradition.

Keywords: Public goods, national defence, Austrian economics

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Abstract: In “Rothbard as a philosopher” (Feser 2006) Edward Feser harshly criticises the philosophical abilities of Murray Rothbard. According to Feser, Rothbard seems unable to produce arguments that don’t commit obvious fallacies or produces arguments that fail to address certain obvious objections. His criticism centres on what he regards as Rothbard’s principal argument for the thesis of self-ownership. In this paper, I attempt to show that Feser’s criticism fails of its purpose and that Rothbard is very far from being the epitome of philosophical ineptitude that Feser takes him to be.

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