The Myth of Natural Rights: Expanded and Revised

by L.A. Rollins

No, it won't stop bullets. It won't keep people from ripping-off your property. It won't even stop the government from putting you in a concentration camp, or executing you. About the only thing a "natural right" will stop is enlightened thinking on the ethics of liberty. Once you've read The Myth of Natural Rights, you'll be able to put those imaginary protectors of freedom back in the museums where they came from. Libertarian scholars have had a difficult time being taken seriously in intellectual circles. There's a good reason for this. While they have gained recognition and acclaim for their staunch defense of the free market, compelling advocacy of civil liberties and devastating condemnation of interventionism, their stubborn reliance on the ancient myth of natural rights leaves them in philosophical disrepute. The doctrine of natural rights has persisted among libertarians, because there has never been a systematic and thorough critique of all it implies. Until now. In one compact work, L.A. Rollins shatters the myth of natural rights, while exposing the "bleeding-heart libertarians" that promote it. With careful research and ample documentation, he shows that thinkers like Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan and Samuel Konkin not only violate reason and logic in their defense of natural rights, but also violate the standards they set for themselves.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction

206 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1983

Reviews

[Dave Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shook up my thinking considerably about 26 years ago. Then I loaned it to a friend and never saw it again. Rollins' attack was funny, accurate, interesting. Poor Ayn Rand. Maybe this book killed her.

[Win Bigly II: · Rating 5 out of 5]

(My September 12th, 2014 review, copied from Amazon)

Murray Rothbard obliterated the arguments for the state, using strong reason on both the economic and ethical sides. And in this work, LA Rollins -- in a trenchant style reminiscent of ol' Murray, who is righteously roasted within -- absolutely obliterates the arguments for natural rights. He does it so smoothly, slickly, and logically that it is absolutely obscene that anyone with a modicum of reason today -- libertarian or not -- could still buy into the notion of natural rights.

David Gordon, normally a pretty decent writer and thinker from the Mises world, has a piece in the Murray Rothbard festschrift 'Man Economy and Liberty' which critiques Rollins' work here. The piece is unbelievably weak and only has one half-way decent critique with the rest of his rebuttals breaking down before even leaving the driveway. James E. Miller also attempts (fails) to rebut some of Rollins' points in a recent piece critiquing Trevor Blake's egoism.

Absolutely recommended. And for realzies I need a copy of the book that has Rollins' other essays - I cannot find it anywhere!

[Seth Rothberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Rollins was obviously a very salty individual but his logic an humorous style is worth the price of admission alone. If your looking into this book there isn't alot I can relay to you that the title doesn't explain. Rollins 100 page essay on why natural rights don't exist is sound an pretty funny (in my own opinion). Now the icing of the book is the rebuttals an rebuttals of rebuttals by the likes of libertarian an free though big heads Jeff Riggenbach, Murray N. Rothbard, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert LeFevre an a few others. Mr. Riggenbach and Mr. Wilson being my personal favorite highlights. It's a quick read an though some of the critiques are repetitive the way there separated breaks it up. If you agree or disagree with anything in the book that really is the fun of reading it.

[Dan Sallberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all Libertarians.