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Rights-Oriented and Consequences-Oriented Libertarians

Prof. Jeffrey Miron describes broadly the differences between rights-oriented (philosophical) and consequences-oriented (practical) libertarians. The video is a fair description of both, and one can easily guess from both the title and order of his presentation which Miron supports.

Still, the distinction is, itself, not so significant in day-to-day debates, as almost all libertarians will use practical justifications, with some also advocating philosophical ones as fundamental to their views. (The consequentialists won’t use the language of rights theory, but the philosophical libertarians will use both arguments.)

Those from old movement families, especially families without economists among their ranks, are more likely to be philosophical, rights-oriented libertarians. That’s a topic for another day; for today, here’s Miron on the two schools:

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