>From: Tibor R Machan I wish to announce my new book, which was just published: PRIVATE RIGHTS & PUBLIC ILLUSIONS (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1995). It is a treatise on public policy theory and application within the natural rights libertarian framework. If you are so inclined and have the time, please consider reviewing this work for a publication where it might generate some discussion. Thanks, Tibor Machan ======================================================================= >Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 10:55:02 -0500 (CDT) >From: Tibor R Machan >Subject: Abstract of PRIVATE RIGHTS & PUBLIC ILLUSIONS Tibor R. Machan, PRIVATE RIGHTS & PUBLIC ILLUSIONS (Transaction Books, 1995), pp. 379, endnotes; index. The book argues, in essence, that the concept of "public" in the context of political discourse has become ambiguous and vague, to the detriment of coherence and clarity of meaning. Weather the welfare state, which is given support by such usage of the concept, is consonant with the most sensible understanding of US constitutionalism is briefly investigated; then a discussion of rational public choice theory (via a critique of the Arrow "paradox") follows; several areas of social life are examined and approaches are outlined that eschew rendering them all a part of "public" policy as is now the habit; advertising, professional ethics, environmental policy, government regulation and other areas are discussed, with the concluding chapters focusing on national labor policy since the mid 1800s. The book is an attempt to address practical politics and social life from a natural rights libertarian (non-utopian) framework. ======================================================================= Following is a mini review / ad from Laissez Faire Books: ======================================================================= Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 10:22:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Whitten Subject: Laissez Faire Book News: PRIVATE RIGHTS & PUBLIC ILLUSIONS First 100 copies are autographed! Natural rights philosopher Tibor Machan provides a powerful, enormously sophisticated defense of individualism PRIVATE RIGHTS AND PUBLIC ILLUSIONS by Tibor Machan (reviewed by Jim Powell) For some two decades, Tibor Machan has courageously defended natural rights and radical individualism in the most hostile arenas-- university philosophy departments. Roman Christians had it easier when they got tossed to lions. But anyone who has seen Machan speak knows he's a formidable gladiator. With a single deft stroke on page one, Machan seizes the intellectual offensive against those who seem to believe that only laws and bureaucrats can make life better: "The first point to be noted when we reflect on this proliferation of a faith in rendering everything a public concern is that the state or government is but a small feature of any society suitable for human community... only a totalitarian government aims to take on every possible concern of the citizenry." Machan shines as he exposes embarrassing contradictions of egalitarianism. Example: "If welfare and equality are to be primary aims of law, some people must necessarily possess a greater power of coercion in order to force redistribution of material goods. Political power alone should be equal among human beings; yet, striving for other kinds of equality absolutely requires political inequality." I look forward to the day when he spends more time on a manuscript, because it can be hard going, and he deserves a much wider audience. If you keep plowing through the thickets in this book, you'll discover rewards aplenty. I mean really wonderful, blazing insights. You've got to see him run circles around the biggest brains the egalitarian, tax- and-spend welfare state can throw at us. Machan shows how you can elegantly rebut the most seductive appeals of the welfare state. For example, promises to guarantee the "positive freedom" of decent living standards: "positive freedom can only be secured via the full protection of the right to negative freedom [from coercion]. This is because only when the latter is fully secured are human beings going to be most willing and able to provide both for themselves and for others--including the specially needy--the values for our lives." He easily deflates the moral pretensions of the politically correct: "The great Saints of history have served their 'private interest' just as the most money-grubbing miser has served his interest. The private interest is whatever it is that drives an individual." Again and again, Machan adroitly puts adversaries on the defensive. For instance: "Instead of accepting the elitist view that some aspects of human life (namely, those having to do with the mind, intellect, or spirit) are more noble than the rest and so should be above government regulation... If business is to be regulated, why not ballet?" Machan provides a rigorous moral case for natural rights, individualism and capitalism. He picks apart the most revered adversaries from Ivy League egalitarians like John Rawls to statist flacks like Ralph Nader. Machan doesn't nip at the edges of the welfare state--he takes a meat ax to it. This is a thinker who really knows his business. Book No. PH6235 (hardcover) 379p. publisher's price $34.95 LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $24.95 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Please send this review to anyone who you think might be interested ------------------------------------------------------------------- *Private Rights & Public Illusions* can be ordered from Laissez Faire. Call toll-free 1-800-326-0996 or (415) 541-9780, fax (415) 541-0597 or write to: Laissez Faire Books, Dept. L50, 938 Howard St., #202, San Francisco, CA, 94103. To order via E-MAIL: write to Sarah Rossell, in our customer service dept., at 74741.2631@compuserve.com; or simply reply to me, Chris Whitten, at LFB@panix.com. If you have ordered from us before, please include your zip code. This will verify your identity, and you will not need to include your mailing address or credit card information. 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