Customer Reviews

Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Case for Classical Liberalism (Studies in Law and Economics)

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Anyone looking for a balanced, albeit compassionate, but not mushy, defense of limited government should be directed to read this superb book. All writing is social. For some time Epstein has been having a running dialogue - or shall we say a running battle of words - in his books with apologists for the welfare state such as Cass Sunstein's contrapuntal book The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes (1999). Epstein deftly exposes the flawed assumptions of his opponents - that more taxes and regulation do not result in greater liberty, compassion, or even a bigger economic pie. The problem with Epstein's book, as opposed to those of his rivals, is few outside academia may read it. Epstein can sometimes write eloquently - such as when he summarizes the "melancholy truth" that wealth redistribution works for the powerful not the needy with the apt phrase: "there is many a slip between cup and lip." Epstein can out-reason both his opponents on his Left and Right - such welfare absolutists as Cass Sunstein on one hand, and such moral relativists as laissez fairest Richard Posner on the other (Economic Analysis of Law 1998). But his book appeals to the rational and those of his Big Government opponents to the emotional. Unfortunately, few may find Epstein's first chapter on "Two Forms of Skepticism" (which he never really explains) as engaging and may likely put the book down at that point. Epstein explains that this is perhaps the last book in his trilogy (Simple Rules, 1995 and Principles for a Simple Society, 1998) and apologizes to his family for taking time to write a book for which he says they don't entirely approve. I would hope that Epstein would write a fourth book, albeit a dumbed-downed, more emotional and experiential book that would have wider appeal and of which maybe even his family would approve. But then if he did that maybe his compelling arguments for limited government would be diluted and lost. So my suggestion for readers is to plod through Epstein's "inepstein" beginning of his book and you will find it worthwhile. Then again, a classic is a book that appeals to a wide range of readers, and maybe Epstein will someday write us such a book. He nearly does it with this one. Highly recommended.