Libertarianism

PHILOSOPHY 2

ETHICS

New Era University, Quezon City

Submitted by:

Julie Anne Cabaddu

4LM

Submitted to:

Prof. Jensen dG. Mañebog

TH (12:00-3:00)

LIBERTARIAN MANIFESTO

(LIBERTARIANISM)

Libertarianism came from the Latin word “libertas” which means LIBERTY. In Philosophy, the concept of Libertarianism refers to the idea that human free will is a necessary precondition of moral responsibility.[1] It is a doctrine which means that every person is the owner of his own life, and that no one is the owner of anyone else’s life: consequently every human being has the right to act in accordance with his own choices, unless those actions infringe on the equal liberty of other human beings to act in accordance with their choices.[2]

Etymology

• The term libertarian in a metaphysical or philosophical sense was first used by late-Enlightenment free-thinkers to refer to those who believed in free will, as opposed to determinism.[3] (Determinism “causal determinism” is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is, to some large degree, determined by prior states.) [4]

PRINCIPLE OF LIBERTARIANISM

Libertarianism “holds that agents initially fully own themselves and have moral powers to acquire rights in external things under certain conditions.” [5]

PHILOSOPHERS BEHIND THE LIBERTARIANISM AND THEIR BACKGROUND

• John Locke was a British philosopher who lived from 1632 to 1704. His political philosophy emphasizes individual rights, mainly the right of one's person not to be interfered with and the right of justly acquired property. He held that people can acquire rights to unoccupied property that did not require the agreement of government. He argued that the purpose of government is to protect those rights and that we can be justified in rejecting a government that interferes with them. You can see that these ideas influenced the colonists at the time of the...