One’s behavior sends signals about oneself. From ancient times, luxury has been used as a signal. Drawing on Adam Smith, ...

This essay explores Mill’s discussion of possible tensions between liberty and harm to others, especially in the context of ...

Juneteenth is rightly remembered as a celebration of freedom. But Douglass’s life and thought point us toward a deeper meaning: freedom is the opportunity to become self- directed, self- reliant, and ...

Most people learn that the American Revolution began over taxes. But the real conflict was much deeper: who has the right to rule? Barbara Galletti is the Senior Producer of Lib er tar i an ism .org.

A central figure in Western philosophy, Plato was founder of the Academy in Athens, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the ...

Sarah Thomas surveys the recent history of mass surveillance in liberal democracies, highlighting the tension between freedom and security. A commitment to freedom through civil liberties and ...

This essay explores John Stuart Mill’s influential defense of unfettered free thought and discussion as necessary for discovering truth. Perhaps influenced by Rene Descartes, Mill defends the freedom ...

Classical liberals must not cede the ground of patriotism to nationalists. Of all the fractures that divide America and other Western nations today, few are as sharp as that between liberalism and ...

This essay explores chapters three and four of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, which discusses the value of human individuality and the threats it faces from the social dominance of custom and ...

Farzin Zonouz explores the moral and practical implications of taxation, and challenges us to imagine a world that operates through voluntarism, without the coercive practice of taxation of any kind.