libertarianism love

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The principles or doctrines of the libertarians.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Libertarian principles or doctrines.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others the same liberty

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ideological belief in freedom of thought and speech

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From libertarian +‎ -ism.

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Examples

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  • The philosophy of liberty transcends politics. It is about maximizing the natural rights of all people equally. According to libertarianism, every human being is born with three inherent rights:

    1. Ability to own property. A person's belongings are the fruit of his labor (and the product of rights #2 and #3), therefore control over his property is the way to retain the meaning of his past. To take a person's property without his consent is theft.

    2. Personal freedom, or liberty. Every individual carries the responsibility of self-ownership and self-determination; only he may make the decisions of where he will go, what he will do, and how he will live his life. Liberty represents the worth of one's present. To take a person's liberty without his consent is slavery.

    3. Life. No human being is entitled to harm or take the life of another, because a person's life represents hope for the future. To deprive someone of life without his consent is murder.

    These three rights are the foundation of healthy society and may never be infringed by anyone, under any circumstance. Any additional "rights" that do infringe on the three rights listed above are not really rights at all. Additionally, laws which cause any of those rights to be infringed are immoral laws and should be opposed.

    The three cornerstone rights listed above form an invaluable gift that every person possesses in equal quantities. Libertarianism is about defending that gift from anyone who would take it from another by force. In many cases, the enemy of individual rights is the common thug; in many others it is a tyrannical government. Regardless of the circumstance, there is never any justification for violating other humans' rights. In modern democracies, libertarians stand against the tyranny of the majority to prevent the rights of the minority from being unwillingly wrested away.

    Libertarianism is an oft-ridiculed, oft-misunderstood philosophy, but a highly principled one as well. For a more detailed explanation, you may be interested in watching this short video.

    October 23, 2007

  • Noam Chomsky.

    December 9, 2007

  • er, no. :)

    December 9, 2007

  • What kewpid said. :-)

    December 11, 2007

  • Saw this today.

    October 21, 2008