James Otteson in the comments on Jason’s recent post on libertarianism and libertinism:
Is it possible to be a “libertarian conservative”? Even a “conservative anarchist”? Whatever the answer to those questions is, it seems to me that this entire blog is premised on the idea that one can endorse a roughly libertarian political position, while, at the same time, upholding a conception of a virtuous life—understood, at least in part, as entailing limits on one’s own liberty—as what one should strive to achieve.
Indeed, it is premised on that idea. And unfortunately, too many libertarian elites – as we’ve noted here many times before – seem to think libertarianism implies a theory of the whole (or at least a broader theory) rather than just a political theory with thin – but critical – ethical content.
Well said, my friend.
