Liberty, utility, and anarchy : reconciling philosophy and economics

In what is possibly the most impressive case for libertarianism since Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia, J.C.

Lester gives a critical-rationalist defense of the extremest form of the non-moral "classical liberal compatibility thesis": there is no clash among interpersonal liberty, human welfare, and market-anarchy.

Lester shows how the rationality assumptions of mainstream and Austrian School economics are related and relevant to liberty and welfare.

He defends certain conceptions of liberty, welfare and anarchy as plausible and compatible, presenting a new libertarian theory of liberty as "absence of imposed cost".

Lester covers many general issues, including restitution and retribution, intellectual property, free will, weakness of will, and the nature of moralizing.

A path-breaking work in the tradition of grand theory, yet also an excellent introduction to both libertarianism and social thought.

For scholars and students of contemporary political philosophy and theory, economics, sociology, social policy, and jurisprudence.