November, 2006

Why Not Irrationality?

by Bryan Caplan

November 20th, 2006

In his original reply, Jeff faulted me for failing to pay attention to how people actually form beliefs and fall into error. But now he’s switched to the much stronger claim that the very idea of irrationality is somehow philosophically incoherent:
To call people’s emotional attachment to religious beliefs irrational, then Caplan has [...]

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Truth Isn’t Self-Evident; Mistake Isn’t Deliberate

by Jeffrey Friedman

November 20th, 2006

Caplan and I agree that markets are better than democracy. The reason I support markets is that they don’t rely on anyone having sound theoretical knowledge of the sort that seems to be so scarce among both the economically illiterate masses and the highly educated elites. Caplan and I disagree, then, about whether rule by [...]

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Democratic Authority Within Limits

by David Estlund

November 20th, 2006

In his post “Overruling the Majority,” Caplan says that this conversation shows “how uncomfortable people are at the idea of overruling the majority.”
Few believe that majority rule ought to be unlimited; I certainly don’t. Some think the limits can all be explained by the goal of protecting democracy itself, but I doubt that could explain [...]

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Overruling the Majority

by Bryan Caplan

November 19th, 2006

One thing this conversation has brought out is how uncomfortable people are at the idea of overruling the majority. Even if it’s clearly making a mistake, shouldn’t the majority be free to choose?
This line of reasoning makes libertarians uncomfortable, but for no good reason. After all, when the majority votes for protectionism, [...]

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