Category Archives: Axiom of Non-Coercion

Voluntarism Introduction

The only reason slavery is morally wrong is because it is an involuntary deal between two people. Voluntarism is a variant of libertarian theory that builds from the self-ownership and non-agression principles. The short version of this philosophy is that you own yourself, and you can only enter into voluntary deals with others. Any human action [...]
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Caplan on Pacifism

This post on the common sense of pacifism is absolutely brilliant. “Rebecca West once wrote that, “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.”  Pacifism, similarly, is the radical notion that before you kill innocent people, you should be reasonably sure that your action will have very good consequences.  That’s a one-sentence moral theory even [...]
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Another RI Blogroll Blogger Bashes the Axiom

I’ve continued to think about Will Wilkinson’s post on the axiom of non-coercion and its inapplicability in reality, and while I recognize the limits of any axiom, I still have a problem with the way that he phrased the post. Wilkinson has a new ally on my blogroll in Robin Hanson, at Overcoming Bias. Frustratingly, Hanson takes [...]
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THE AXIOM

I don’t know how long this idea is going to be on my mind, but recently it’s been the main subject I’ve wanted to blog. I decided that I want to start referring to the axiom of non-coercion simply as “the axiom” from now on, on this blog. First, just to clear things since I [...]
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