Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Rights and Duties

  • The Militant Defends Religious Liberty

    Mirabile dictu!

  • Rights and Needs

    You can have a right to a thing whether or not you have or will have a need for it. So the best response to the leftist who asks, "Why do you need a gun?" is wrong question! Stop the pointless conversation right there. "The question is not whether I need one; the question is whether I…

  • Is There a Right to Health Care?

    Arguments contra. Top o' the Stack.

  • When the Exercise of Rights Contributes to their Loss

    Civil courage and prudence are competing virtues. At times competition become collision. Top o' the Stack.

  • Frédéric Bastiat on the Law

    To gain historical perspective and philosophical insight as we slide into the abyss, you must read Bastiat among others. Our current situation is nothing new and what the Frenchman writes is directly relevant to our decline. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk. It's twilight time. Can we turn things around? I don't…

  • “All Men are Created Equal”

    I have claimed against certain alt-rightists that the above famous declaration in the Declaration of Independence is not an empirical claim about the properties and powers of human animals whether as individuals or as groups, but a normative claim about persons as rights-possessors. For if "All men are created equal" is an empirical claim about…

  • Rights and Needs

    You can have a right to a thing whether or not you have or will have a need for it. So the best response to the leftist who asks, "Why do you need a gun?" is wrong question! Stop the pointless conversation right there. "The question is not whether I need one; the question is…

  • 2A and the Origin of Rights

    Your right to defend your life with appropriate means is not conferred by the State and would not be affected by repeal of 2A. That right is no more conferred by the State than the right to life from which the right to self-defense follows. The same holds for all of the rights specified in…

  • Use it or Lose it?

    Substack latest. If you want to maintain your physical fitness, you must exercise regularly. Use it or lose it!  Not so long ago  I thought that the same principle had a political application: if you want to maintain your freedoms, you must exercise them.  Use 'em or lose 'em! But times have changed.  And when times change, the…

  • A Dozen Observations on Free Speech

    Substack latest. Wherein I exercise, responsibly, my right to free speech on a topic of great importance. Your rights: use 'em or lose 'em. And don't forget: the Bill of Rights is just paper unless Pb gives it weight.

  • Dreher contra Buchanan on “All men are created equal.”

    Rod Dreher quotes Patrick J. Buchanan: “All men are created equal” is an ideological statement. Where is the scientific or historic proof for it? Are we building our utopia on a sandpile of ideology and hope? Dreher responds: With that, Buchanan repudiates not only the founding principle of our Constitutional order, but also a core teaching of…

  • Is it Wise to Speak Out?

    To focus the question: is it prudent for conservative dissidents to speak out against 'woke' madness? That depends. This will help you think it through.  I wrote below: In the present political climate, if I exercise my right to free speech I may lose the right. Use it and lose it.  This is because vast numbers nowadays do not…

  • Procedural Liberalism

    The law ought to be both protective  of rights and directive of duties. This requirement rules out a purely procedural liberalism.

  • The Right to an Opinion

    The right to express an opinion does not absolve one of the obligation to do one's level best to form correct opinions.  Note however that the legal (and moral) right to free speech guaranteed  to the American citizen by the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution remains even if one shirks one's moral (but…

  • God and Our Rights

    Conservatives regularly say that our rights come from God, not from the state. It is true that they do not come from the state. But if they come from God, then their existence is as questionable as the existence of God. Now discussions with leftists are not likely to lead anywhere; but they certainly won't…