Ep 274: The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, with Kristopher Borer

We had the pleasure of welcoming Kristopher Borer, the author of The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism, to talk about how he sought to redefine libertarianism, the unique voice used in his book, and his view of libertarianism as an ethical – rather than a political – system. With his background in engineering, Kris has been gifted with a unique perspective for the mechanisms that make a system, such as libertarianism, work or collapse.

Kris uses the setting of a desert island with a few characters – who are supposed to be us as the readers – to show the conflict that arises when the goods necessary for survival are scarce, and all the different scenarios and responses that may follow. By creating these situations he then shows how the NAP can be used to resolve the issue, or how it can be misused. Kris shows continually in The Ethics of Anarcho-Capitalism that property rights alone are not a strong enough foundation for libertarianism, instead the NAP is a much more viable option as an ethical code due to its greater precision and reason.

We also talked about the book‘s analogy of a recipe to show how property rights nor the NAP reinforce or support intellectual property (IP), and that there is no real conflict when it comes to the appropriation of IP. This also lead to a discussion on the courts and justice, and how conflict should be dealt with in a society based on a libertarian ethical system. What is the difference between aggression and conflict? Can the law properly address them in a proportional fashion? The NAP is a great tool to answer these questions.

Show Notes