OK, I will now do some philosophical detection and analysis of this Milton Friedman quote: A. I dont have a belief in freedom. The word belief is not the proper word for dealing with knowledge. Do you have a belief that the Earth is round and circles the sun? I sure dont merely *believe* that -- I *know* it. And I also know that *man needs freedom* to live and prosper on Earth. This is not a matter of wooly, vague, wishy-washy belief -- it is demonstrably true. B. The free market is not a primary axiom in political philosophy. It is a highly derivative issue. Rather, underlying most arguments against the free market is the fact that the worlds dominant moral code, altruism, regard the free market as immoral -- because all trade and profit-making is selfish. C. But Positivist intellectuals, like Friedman, absolutely *abhor* any talk of morality -- because they regard morality as being in the domain of belief, not knowledge. So therefore Friedman spent his whole career evading the whole issue of morality. Hence, this quote -- because not even Friedman can consistently evade that the whole issue of freedom is a moral matter.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 19:02:34 +0000
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