Total Freedom

An effort to reclaim dialectics as a viable methodology for libertarian social theory. "Total Freedom offers a convincing demonstation of how crucial a role dialectics has played in the work of many of our greatest philosophers. No one interested in dialectics?or in the problems of change and intera [...]
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An effort to reclaim dialectics as a viable methodology for libertarian social theory. "Total Freedom offers a convincing demonstation of how crucial a role dialectics has played in the work of many of our greatest philosophers. No one interested in dialectics?or in the problems of change and interaction on which it centers?can afford to miss Sciabarra?s scholarly and surprisingly lucid history of dialectical thinking."?Bertell Ollman, author of Alienation and Dialectical Investigations "Total Freedom is a first-rate contribution to social theory and the enduring political project of a free and humane society."?Peter Boettke, author of Why Perestroika Failed: The Politics and Economics of Socialist Transformation ". . . a profoundly radical social perspective, . . . a bold successor to Marxian radicalism . . . Its scholarship is extraordinary."?Don Lavoie, author of Rivalry and Central Planning Building upon his previous books about Marx, Hayek, and Rand, Total Freedom completes what Lingua Franca has called Sciabarra?s "epic scholarly quest" to reclaim dialectics, usually associated with the Marxian left, as a methodology that can revivify libertarian thought. Part One surveys the history of dialectics from the ancient Greeks through the Austrian school of economics. Part Two investigates in detail the work of Murray Rothbard as a leading modern libertarian, in whose thought Sciabarra finds both dialectical and nondialectical elements. Ultimately, Sciabarra aims for a dialectical-libertarian synthesis, highlighting the need (not sufficiently recognized in liberalism) to think of the "totality" of interconnections in a dynamic system as the way to ensure human freedom while avoiding "totalitarianism" (such as resulted from Marxism). "Chris Sciabarra?s Total Freedom is an astonishing work, astonishing in the depth and breadth of its scholarship, in its evidence of the use of the dialectic process by philosophers such as Aristotle, in its discovery of dialectics in the work of economists such as Murray Rothbard, and?most of all?in the first-handedness of its author. Unlike so many other scholars and historians, Sciabarra looks at the history of philosophy through his own eyes and his own understanding. As a result, this beautifully and clearly written book will make the reader reexamine the history of philosophy and the history of dialectics by means of a new epistemological perspective: the perspective of dialectics. Total Freedom is a landmark in philosophical studies and interpretation.?Barbara Branden "In a lucid, scholarily, and daringly original exercise in truly independent thinking, Chris Sciabarra reclaims the concept of dialectics and makes its methodology the foundation for a radical defense of 'the libertarian vision.' In his originality, Sciabarra is a man ahead of his time. He stimulates us with fresh and provocative perspectives, and challenges us to join him at the intellectual heights he so persuasively traverses. Must reading for all those committed to the ideal of a truly free society." -- Nathaniel Branden