Articles by Edward Feser
Are We All Lockeans Now?
President Bush has famously defended his administration's policy of promoting religious, political, and economic liberty around the globe by insisting that "freedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world." His secular critics have...
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Hayek and Fusionism
"Fusionism" is the attempt to combine libertarianism and conservatism into a unified political philosophy and program. It has been controversial ever since Frank Meyer first defended it half a century ago, and every electoral cycle seems to generate another...
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We the Sheeple? Why Conspiracy Theories Persist
Conspiracy theorists allege that the events of 9/11 are not adequately explained by the "official story" fingering Osama bin Laden and his network as the culprits. What really needs explaining, though, is not 9/11, but the existence of such conspiracy...
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Contract Schmontract
In Max Borders' reply to my recent TCS article on "The Metaphysics of Conservatism", he appeals to the "contractarian" theory that morality rests on a tacit agreement between rationally self-interested individuals to abide by certain rules because it is to...
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The Metaphysics of Conservatism
Richard M. Weaver's Ideas Have Consequences, published in 1948, was among the founding documents of contemporary conservatism. The title phrase has become something of a cliché, and overuse has stripped it of the interesting meaning it once had. Nowadays most...
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On 'Legislating Morality': The Anti-Conservative Fallacy
The recent Terri Schiavo controversy has raised once again the question of whether government ought to be in the business of "legislating morality." Many liberals and libertarians accused conservatives who worked to get Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted of try
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How to Mix Religion and Politics
We are constantly told by liberals -- or "progressives," or "the reality-based community," or however it is they are marketing themselves this week -- that religion and politics ought never to be mixed. Religion, it is said, should be confined...
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The Myth of Libertarian Neutrality
Editor's note: This is the third and final article in a debate over the nature of libertarianism between Edward Feser and Will Wilkinson. Read Feser's first article here and Wilkinson's response here. Wilkinson will have more to say on...
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The Trouble with Libertarianism
"Libertarianism" is usually defined as the view in political philosophy that the only legitimate function of a government is to protect its citizens from force, fraud, theft, and breach of contract, and that it otherwise ought not to interfere...
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Universities and the Left: A Reply to the Critics
The debate over the Left's domination of the modern university has always been an emotional one, and my recent two-part TCS article on the subject has certainly generated some passionate responses. Most of these were from conservative professors, students,...
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