My Cato Essays


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"Herbert Spencer's Sociology of the State."

My lead article, “Herbert Spencer’s Sociology of the State,” for the Online Library of Liberty site is now up. Comments by Roderick Long, David Levy, and Alberto Mingardi will appear soon, followed my replies and additional comments.

Ghs

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The Roots of State Education Part 3: Aristotle and Civic Virtue

George H. Smith continues his examination of the intellectual roots of state education by turning to the views of Plato’s most famous student.

The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #18 is now available.

Ghs

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The Roots of State Education, Part 1: The Spartan Model

George H. Smith discusses how the educational system of Sparta influenced later advocates of state education.

The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Cato Essay #16 is now up.

Ghs

I think it's erroneous to call the Spartan model "state education". The divide between society and state, something which I think is flawed, didn't exist as a concept back then. I don't know, it just seems to strange to project our understanding of "public" and "private" onto a situation that existed before it. If you go up to most people and talked to them, I don't think they'd see much of a divide between government and their community.

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The Roots of State Education, Part 1: The Spartan Model

George H. Smith discusses how the educational system of Sparta influenced later advocates of state education.

The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Cato Essay #16 is now up.

Ghs

I think it's erroneous to call the Spartan model "state education". The divide between society and state, something which I think is flawed, didn't exist as a concept back then. I don't know, it just seems to strange to project our understanding of "public" and "private" onto a situation that existed before it. If you go up to most people and talked to them, I don't think they'd see much of a divide between government and their community.

George is not writing for Spartans, but you and I and such and such as those today who don't "see much of a divide between government and their community" for he wants them to see it.

--Brant

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I think it's erroneous to call the Spartan model "state education". The divide between society and state, something which I think is flawed, didn't exist as a concept back then. I don't know, it just seems to strange to project our understanding of "public" and "private" onto a situation that existed before it. If you go up to most people and talked to them, I don't think they'd see much of a divide between government and their community.

The statement that "the divide between society and state" is "flawed" suggests society and the state are one and the same. Are they? For example were the American colonists of the 1770's one and the same as their British rulers? How does the theory of no division between state and community account for an anti-British majority existing side by side with a minority of loyalist Tories who represented about 15% of the population during the Revolution?

As for Sparta, the military leaders of that ancient country insisted on a form of eugenics that got rid of children that did not meet certain physical standards. It does not require too much imagination to suppose that not all youngsters went willingly to their deaths. Thus clearly there was a division between state policy and a certain minority of the population.

Hitler said, "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" ("One People, One Empire, One Leader"). Must we take him at his word and suppose that the leader of Germany, 1933-1945, spoke with one voice for all Germans?

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The Roots of State Education, Part 1: The Spartan Model

George H. Smith discusses how the educational system of Sparta influenced later advocates of state education.

The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Cato Essay #16 is now up.

Ghs

I think it's erroneous to call the Spartan model "state education". The divide between society and state, something which I think is flawed, didn't exist as a concept back then. I don't know, it just seems to strange to project our understanding of "public" and "private" onto a situation that existed before it. If you go up to most people and talked to them, I don't think they'd see much of a divide between government and their community.

The Spartans had a government, and that government exercised complete and coercive control over education. That's why we call it a system of state education. The Athenians also had a government, but it left education to the voluntary decisions of individuals. That's why it qualifies as market education. The fact that the Greeks, generally speaking, did not draw our modern distinction between the coercive realm of the "state" and the voluntary realm of "society" (a fact that I pointed out in one of the recent podcasts) has no bearing on this matter.

For more on the society/state model, see my multi-part essay "State and Society," beginning here.

Ghs

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Critics of State Education, Part 1: Joseph Priestley

George H. Smith begins his series on the critics of state education with a discussion of Joseph Priestley, the Englishman who discovered oxygen.

My Libertarianism.org podcast #19 is now available.

Ghs

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Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism: The Selfish System

Smith discusses various objections to the claim that all actions are necessarily self-interested.

My Libertarianism.org Essay #152 is now up. It begins:

Given Nathaniel Branden’s recent death (Dec. 3), it is fitting to begin this discussion of psychological egoism—or the selfish system, as it was called in earlier centuries—by referring to an article on this topic that Branden wrote for The Objectivist Newsletter (Sept. 1962). In “Isn’t Everyone Selfish?” Branden stated the basic thesis of psychological egoism as follows: “Since every purposeful action is motivated by some value or goal that the actor desires, one always acts selfishly, whether one knows it or not.”

Branden had a remarkable ability to analyze philosophical and psychological issues in clear and concise terms, as we see in his treatment of psychological egoism. Near the end of his article, Branden hit the nail on the head.....

Ghs

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Critics of State Education Part 2: The British Voluntaryists

George H. Smith turns to the philosophy of Voluntaryism, discussing how its proponents fought against state control of education in the nineteenth century.

The Libertarian.org podcast of my Excursions Essay #20 is now available.

Ghs

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Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism: Joseph Butler, Continued

Smith continues his discussion of Butlers theory of moral psychology, and summarizes his ideas about conscience and rational self-interest.

My Libertarianism.org Essay #154 is now up.

Ghs

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Barack Obama, Social Darwinism, and Survival of the Fittest, Part 2]

George H. Smith continues his discussion of Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner, explaining how they explicitly repudiated the ideas associated with social Darwinism.

The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #25 is now up.

Ghs

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