Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order.

• Author: Palmer, Tom G.

Almost 20 years ago, Robert Nozick began his book Anarchy, State and Utopia with the resounding assertion that "individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating those rights)." Since then, legions of philosophers have stepped forth to answer the obvious question: Exactly why do individuals have fights?

The latest to submit a detailed answer are Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl, both of whom have backgrounds as followers (and exegetes) of the thought of Ayn Rand and are now professors of philosophy at soberly Catholic universities, where discussions of what it means to be a human being (or even what it means just to be) are not laughed out of the faculty lounge. In Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order, the authors attempt to ground a defense of (classical) liberal values in the tradition of inquiry initiated by Aristotle.

That seems to be quite a challenge, given that Aristotle himself, apart from a few lines critical of Plato's proposals for communism and the abolition of property, was in general either hostile to or unaware of (understandable, given the times) most of the principal elements of classical-liberal political thought, among them: cosmopolitanism, individual rights that can be asserted against the state, freedom of trade and commerce, the distinction between society and the state, pluralism, diversity, and toleration of non-coercive behavior and minorities. Rasmussen and Den Uyl make it clear that they don't intend to defend Aristotle's conclusions about political morality. Rather, they draw upon his overall philosophy for tools of analysis and important insights into human life.

In seeking to generate moral obligation, or to solve the traditional "is-ought" problem, Rasmussen and Den Uyl make the following claims, using Aristotle for inspiration:

1) Man has a nature, and the fundamental distinguishing feature of that nature is his (her) ability to "apprehend the world in conceptual terms."

2) "Remaining in existence as the sort of thing it is is the natural end or function of a being."

3) Therefore, "living rationally or intelligently is the natural end, function, or ergon [deed or work] of a human being."

On this they base their claim that "one ought to live in accordance with the requirements of one's nature." The argument so far is more than a bit confusing, because Rasmussen and Den Uyl claim that the obligation to live in accord with one's...