Is libertarianism a selfish philosophy?
Question 19 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
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Libertarianism is a philosophy that promotes self-interest, so it’s easy to confuse this with selfishness. Selfishness implies a disregard for others. So the question then is, does libertarianism promote a general disregard for others? The short answer is, no.
Self-interested acts that disregard others by violating the NAP are considered criminal. There may be self-interested actions, which do not violate the NAP, that others would not choose for themselves and yet influence how they have to choose differently. This is simply the way life works. In our view, the individual and the community are of equal importance; we are individuals living in communities with one another, yet one is not more important than the other. Some people are inclined to believe that any self-interest is inherently selfish and therefore immoral. So let’s consider what a completely altruistic world looks like.
Imagine a society where you could never say, ‘no.’ Where everyone belongs to everyone else and is meant to serve others. Any form of self-interest is considered selfish - a disregard for others in the community who have a right to your good will. Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, Brave New World, depicts this utopian-dystopian world where all forms of self-interest are considered selfish. The implications of this sort of society turn out to be very anti-Christian with no monogamy, no family, no church, no love, and no privacy. Christianity is not opposed to self-interest. It is opposed to the general disregard of others. But the world Huxley predicted shows us what happens when we disregard self-interest and the individual right to choose. We are in fact acting selfishly, with disregard for others, when we don’t acknowledge others’ right to choose according to their self-interest. So we must consider self-interest as distinct from selfishness.
When two individuals voluntarily trade with one another, they do so from self-interest and the results are mutually beneficial. If it wasn’t beneficial to both parties, they would voluntarily choose not to trade. As individuals within a community voluntarily trade, communities then voluntarily interact with one another. This too is for mutually beneficial ends as a result of individual self-interest. Libertarianism promotes regard for others through the principles of self-ownership, the NAP, and voluntary (mutually-beneficial) exchanges and associations.