<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Thick moral terms – such as theft, fraud, and counterfeiting – are terms whose very use implies a definitionally necessary moral evaluation of their content. In this paper, I shall argue that the philosophy of statism – that is, a philosophy grounded in the belief in the normative justifiability and desirability of monopolistic apparatuses of initiatory violence – is necessarily amoral insofar as it cannot apply thick moral terms in a logically consistent manner. By the same token, I shall argue that libertarianism – i.e., the view that only consensual social relations are morally acceptable – is the only general sociopolitical doctrine capable of accomplishing this task, thus, in contrast to statism, making its prescriptions susceptible to genuine moral evaluation.</p></abstract>

Thick moral terms – such as theft, fraud, and counterfeiting – are terms whose very use implies a definitionally necessary moral evaluation of their content. In this paper, I shall argue that the philosophy of statism – that is, a philosophy grounded in the belief in the normative justifiability and desirability of monopolistic apparatuses of initiatory violence – is necessarily amoral insofar as it cannot apply thick moral terms in a logically consistent manner. By the same token, I shall argue that libertarianism – i.e., the view that only consensual social relations are morally acceptable – is the only general sociopolitical doctrine capable of accomplishing this task, thus, in contrast to statism, making its prescriptions susceptible to genuine moral evaluation.

Is Statism an Amoral Philosophy?

Studia Humana

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Is Statism an Amoral Philosophy?"}

Thick moral terms – such as theft, fraud, and counterfeiting – are terms whose very use implies a definitionally necessary moral evaluation of their content....

Is Statism an Amoral Philosophy?

Publié en ligne: 27 août 2020

Pages: 121 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2020-0020

Mots clés
libertarianism, statism, amoralism, thick moral concepts, metaethics

© 2020 Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Is Statism an Amoral Philosophy?

Publié en ligne: 27 août 2020

Pages: 121 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2020-0020

Mots cléslibertarianism, statism, amoralism, thick moral concepts, metaethics

© 2020 Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
libertarianism, statism, amoralism, thick moral concepts, metaethics