{"id":10591,"date":"2011-06-29T10:23:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/06\/29\/value-free-government\/"},"modified":"2011-06-29T10:23:53","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:23:53","slug":"value-free-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/06\/29\/value-free-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Value-Free Government?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Libertarians sometimes speak as if government could and ought to be value-free.&#0160; But value-free government is as impossible as value-free education.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Education cannot be value-free for the simple reason that all education, assuming it is not confused with indoctrination, presupposes that knowledge is a value and ignorance a disvalue.&#0160; If knowledge is a value then so is the pursuit of truth.&#0160; And if the pursuit of truth is a value, then the habits of mind and character the cultivation of which are conducive to the pursuit of truth are values as well.&#0160; Among these are truthfulness and intellectual honesty.&#0160; But truthfulness and intellectual honesty cannot be brought to bear in the quest for truth without diligence and self-control and respect for those who know better.&#0160; We could continue with this reflection but we have gone far enough to see that the notion of value-free education is nonsense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">Equally nonsensical is the notion of value-free government.&#0160; One would not be much of a libertarian if one did not hold liberty to be a value and (material) equality to be, if not a disvalue, then at least subordinate in the axiological hierarchy to liberty.&#0160; So libertarians have at least one value, liberty.&#0160; They advocate a government that allows its richest expression.&#0160; Anarchists, conservatives, liberals, fascists &#8212; they too have their characteristic values which they hope to promote when and if they gain power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia,palatino;\">What I have said suffices to show that the notion of value-free government is nonsense.&#0160; The question is not <em>whether<\/em> values but <em>which<\/em> values.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Libertarians sometimes speak as if government could and ought to be value-free.&#0160; But value-free government is as impossible as value-free education. Education cannot be value-free for the simple reason that all education, assuming it is not confused with indoctrination, presupposes that knowledge is a value and ignorance a disvalue.&#0160; If knowledge is a value then &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/06\/29\/value-free-government\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Value-Free Government?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libertarianism","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}