Reality, Reason, and Rights

Dr. Douglas B. Rasmussen is professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in NYC. He received his doctorate from Marquette University. He has co-authored six books, among which are Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non- Perfectionist Politics (2005) and Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order (1991). Recently, Norms of Liberty was the subject of a new book, Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on "Norms of Liberty" (2008). He has published nearly one hundred articles in such journals as the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, International Philosophical Quarterly, The New Scholasticism, The Personalist, Public Affairs Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, Social Philosophy and Policy, The Thomist, and in many scholarly anthologies. He guest-edited TELEOLOGY & THE FOUNDATION OF VALUE—the January 1992 (Volume 75, No. 1) issue of The Monist. Finally, he is co-editor of The Philosophical Thought of Ayn Rand (1984).Dr. Aeon J. Skoble is professor of philosophy and Chairman of the Philosophy Department at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. He is the co-editor of Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (Prentice-Hall, 1999), author of Deleting the State: An Argument about Government (Open Court, 2008), and editor of Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty (Lexington Books, 2008), and has written many essays in both scholarly and popular journals. In addition, he writes widely on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, and is co-editor of Woody Allen and Philosophy (Open Court 2004), The Philosophy of TV Noir (University Press of Kentucky 2008), and the best-selling The Simpsons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2000).Dr. Douglas J. Den Uyl is Vice President of Educational Programs at Liberty Fund, Inc. He has published books and articles in the areas of political philosophy, ethics, and the history of philosophy, including Power, State, and Freedom: An Interpretation of Spinoza’s Political Philosophy (Van Gorcum, 1983), The Virtue of Prudence (Peter Lang, 1991), and (with Douglas B. Rasmussen) Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order (Open Court, 1991); Liberalism Defended: The Challenge of Post-Modernity (Edward Elgar, 1997); and Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics (Penn State University Press, 2005).

For over forty years Tibor Machan has provided unfailing support for individual liberty and at the same time influenced a host of scholars across numerous disciplines. In this volume some of these scholars analyze, refine, and critique many of the central principles that comprise Machan's vision of a just society. Reality, Reason, and Rights: Essays in Honor of Tibor R. Machan is filled with compelling philosophical arguments and enlightening analysis. It deserves and will benefit a wide readership.

• Chapter 1. Tibor MachanNicolas CapaldiChapter 2. Machan on Egoism and AltruismAeon J. SkobleChapter 3. Aristotle and the Roots of IndividualismJames E. ChesherChapter 4. Injustice and the Welfare StateDouglas J. Den UylChapter 5. Reason and Precedent in the LawLester HuntChapter 6. Liberty and the Virtue of Patience: A Vindication of Machan’s ProjectJonathan JacobsChapter 7. God, Aquinas and Revisionist Natural Law Theory: The Question of Natural Kinds and Natural RightsAnthony LisskaChapter 8. How to Think about Economic JusticeEric MackChapter 9. Neo-Aristotelian Theories of Natural RightsFred D. Miller, Jr. Chapter 10. Liberty to Equality: Yet Another TryJames SterbaChapter 11. Machan, Realism, and Objective Value JudgmentsDouglas B. Rasmussen