The following two quotes refer to the old classical liberals represented by the famous 18th century liberal economist Adam Smith; anthony the jerseya modern, more radical liberal anarchist.
The first quote is from the manuscript Lecture by Mr. Smith (Quoted after his death, but later lost):
Little else is needed to bring a nation from the lowest barbarism to the highest luxury than peace, reduced taxes, and a tolerant administration of justice. All the rest comes through natural processes.
The second quote is from Anthony de Jasay's book social contract, free ridewill be reviewed in the next issue. regulation To commemorate the 35th anniversary of publication. De Jasay defines (classical) liberalism as follows:
It is a broad premise that decisions are made individually, with structures that provide approximately equal convenience to both individual and collective choices.
This bridge shows the common ground between more moderate classical liberals and more radical libertarians: the ideal of the state. state of humility. The response is certainly not perfect. Anthony de Jacsay was more radical than his definition suggests. And other classical liberals, e.g. friedrich hayek and james buchanan—accepted a potentially greater role for the state than the two quotes above suggest. I think de Jasay pointed out a necessary (and perhaps sufficient) condition of liberalism or libertarianism: the general primacy of individual and personal choice over collective and political choice.
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To illustrate this post, I wrote to ChatGPT 4, “Image symbolizing the primacy of individual and individual choice as opposed to collective and political choice as seen by classical liberals and libertarians. „Generate“. The robot worked on it (though „he“ seemed to have an idea of what classical liberalism and libertarianism were). I had to give other instructions and specifically reminded him of his two guys trading oranges and apples. Remember how James Buchanan did it? We used that image as a symbol of mutually beneficial exchange. The best or most impressive image of a chatbot is reproduced below, and is used as the featured image for this post.