Being “transcendental” on the political compass means operating outside its usual categories. The term has nothing to do with metaphysics, theology or spirituality. It is used only as a political label for a perspective that rejects the standard divisions between left and right, authoritarian and libertarian. The political compass assumes…

Samuel Edward Konkin III had a naming problem that he could hardly have anticipated. During the early 1970s, while breaking intellectually and strategically with the emerging Libertarian Party, he began developing what he called New Libertarianism. Counter-Economics supplied its method, agorism its destination, and the rejection of electoral politics its…

Imagine four neighbours living on the same street. One is an individualist anarchist, one is a mutualist, one is an anarcho-capitalist, and the fourth is an anarcho-distributist. They share the same physical space, but they disagree about property, credit, firms, exchange, and economic organization. The individualist anarchist prefers personal autonomy…

Modern political philosophy is commonly understood as a debate within the intellectual legacy of the Enlightenment. Liberalism, socialism, constitutional democracy, secular humanism, positivism, and many forms of modern conservatism define themselves in relation to the transformation that began in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. More recently, another current has emerged in…

In my previous article, I argued that Ayn Rand did not introduce Murray Rothbard to Aristotle. The evidence shows something more nuanced: Rand had a real influence on Rothbard’s appreciation of natural rights and natural law, but there is no convincing evidence that she was the original source of his…

Modern social democracy is usually presented as a moderate alternative to both laissez-faire capitalism and revolutionary socialism. It is described as pragmatic, democratic, humane, and technically responsible. Historically, however, it did not appear out of nowhere. It emerged from the broader socialist movement that also produced Marxism, before gradually exchanging…

From an early Proudhonian point of view, not the later Proudhon of federalism, community is not something to worship, romanticize, or dissolve the individual into. It is something to treat with suspicion whenever it becomes coercive, moralizing, collectivist, or even when it appears voluntary but begins to generate a collective…

It is sometimes claimed that Ayn Rand introduced Murray Rothbard to Aristotle. While this assertion is common in some Objectivist circles, the historical evidence does not support it. What Rothbard did explicitly credit Rand for was introducing him to the tradition of natural rights and natural law. In a 1958…

Curtis Yarvin has argued that libertarianism and Marxism are much closer than their supporters would like to admit. Most libertarians dismiss the claim immediately. After all, libertarianism emerged as one of the strongest intellectual opponents of socialism, central planning, and state power. At first glance, the comparison appears absurd. Yet…

Kantianism is not a single doctrine frozen in the eighteenth century. It is a broad philosophical tradition that begins with Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy and then branches into several schools. What unites these movements is a shared concern with reason, autonomy, moral duty, and the conditions that make knowledge and…