hl CHAPTER 13 Liberty as Means

CHAPTER 13 Liberty as Means
Note:13@@@@@@@@@@@@@Cambiamento sociale e decisione collettiva...libertarismo...prostituzione...paradosso: federalismo o libertarismo

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The Paradox of Liberty
Note:TITOLO. PARADOSSO DELLA LIBERTÀ

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Then how can we decide rationally among alternatives? The simplest answer is to hedge bets whenever possible.
Note:SCOMMESSE

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Various social, economic, and political arrangements have competed for survival, and those that persist therefore embed information about what works
Note:INFO NASCOSTE

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This should lead us to see what is often termed “status quo bias” as, instead, a rational preference for the status quo.
Note:STATUS QUO BIAS

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but is not as simple as saying that the fittest social arrangements have survived, and therefore we live in the best of all possible worlds. First, the environment around us is constantly changing,
Note:EVOLUZNE ED EFFICIENZA

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it renders a verdict on packages
Note:SECONDO PROBLEMA DEL CAMBIAMENTO SOCIALE

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not on individual elements
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societies that consistently follow the mantra of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” usually will lose out to those who consistently seek opportunities for self-improvement.
Note:VOGLIA DI MIGLIORARE

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it is hard to know what effects a given action will actually have.
Note:DIFFICOLTA DI MIGLIORAMENTO. 1 CALCOARE EFFETTI

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Second, people disagree about what effects constitute improvement.
Note:VALUTARE EFFETTI....LA BATTAGI DEI VALORI

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First, for the reasons described above, in the absence of experimental evidence we should have a rational status quo preference, and therefore place the burden of proof on those who advocate change.
Note:ONERE DRLLA PROVA

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we should as a next fallback try new ideas on a small scale with reduced risk.
Note:PROVARE SU BASSA SCALA

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Sometimes, however, we will face an all-or-nothing reform decision, as in the case of the huge stimulus program the United States launched after the 2008 financial crisis. These types of decisions are dangerous and should be avoided whenever possible.
Note:ALL OR NOTHING

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Our ignorance demands that we let social evolution operate as the least bad of the alternatives for determining what works.
Note:ORDINE SPONTANEO...LEGGE DEL PIÙ FORTE

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Subsocieties that behave differently on many dimensions are both the raw materials for an evolutionary process that sifts through and hybridizes alternative institutions,
Note:COMPETIZIONE TRA SUB SOCIETIES....COMP DI GRUPPO

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We want variation in human social arrangements for some of the same reasons that biodiversity can be useful in genetic evolution.
Note:BIODIVERSITÀ

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But if we take our ignorance seriously, the implications of this insight significantly diverge from much of what the modern libertarian movement espouses.
Note:LIBERTARIAN?...CONFUTAZIONE

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creating the raw material of new ideas
Note:RUOLO DELLA LIBERTÀ

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also provides a mechanism for testing, refining, and applying these new ideas.
Note:Ccccccc

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separate argument for liberty is that it is a metaphysical good—that
Note:VALORE IN SÈ

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I’ll call the more metaphysical argument liberty-as-goal, and the more prosaic argument I have made liberty-as-means.
Note:LIBERTÀ SCOPO O MEZZO?

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But these beliefs often conflict, raising what we could call the paradox of liberty, or more precisely, the paradox of liberty-as-means.
Note:CONFLITTO E PARADOSSO

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Should prostitution be legal? The canonical Libertarian Party position is that prostitution is a consensual act between adults and therefore should not be prohibited by law. The liberty-as-means position is far more tentative. We don’t know the overall effects of legalized prostitution.
Note:ESEMPIO PROSTITUZIONE

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What the liberty-as-means libertarian calls for is the freedom to experiment: let different localities try different things, and learn from this experience.
Note:LIBERTÀ D ESPERIMENTO

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LOCALISMO....SPERIMENTARE ANCHE SOLUZIONI LIBERTARIE....VEDI IL CASO LEVY

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This leads then to a call for “states as laboratories of democracy” federalism in matters of social policy,
Note:FEDERALISMO

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The characteristic error of the contemporary Right and Left in this is enforcing too many social norms on a national basis.
Note:NATIONAL BASIS

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What if social conservatives are right and the wheels really will come off society in the long run if we don’t legally restrict various sexual behaviors? What if some left-wing economists are right and it is better to have aggressive zoning laws that prohibit big-box retailers?
Note:IL DILEMMA DEI LIBERTARI

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The freedom to experiment needs to include freedom to experiment with different governmental (i.e., coercive) rules.
Note:ECCO ALLORA IL PARADOSSO DELLA LIBERTÀ

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Three Limits to Liberty
Note:TITOLO. LIMITI DELLA LIBERTÀ

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Freedom of subsocieties to enforce (or not enforce) coercive rules on people
Note:IL PRINCIPIO....A SEGUIRE...LE SUE LIMITAZIONI

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one of the primary mechanisms by which more successful methods of organization win out over others in evolutionary competition is through people voting with their feet.
Note:PREMESSA AL PRIMO LIMITE...COME VALUTARE.LA COMPETIZIONE DI GRUPPO

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So, one limit on the freedom to experiment is that subsocieties should not be allowed to trap adults.
Note:PRIMO LIMITE

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This does not imply a fully corresponding right of entry.
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A second limit can be created by external threats, of which one important type is foreign aggression, and another is rapid change in the physical environment.
Note:SEVONDO LIMITE: SICUREZZA E GUERRA

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military attack,
Note:CccccccESEMPIO 1

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killer asteroid hurtling
Note:CccccccccESEMPIO 2

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Throughout most of human history, leaders have used the threat of future foreign aggression to justify state control, but in modern Western democracies, long-term threats to the physical environment are also used for this purpose. Characteristically, though not universally, the political Right cites threats of foreign military action, and the political Left cites threats to the physical environment.
Note:DESTRA: MINACCIA SICUREZZA. SINISTRA: MINACCIA AMBIENTE

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The third limit on liberty is created by the evolutionary desirability of collective action. In a competitive environment, societies can create advantages through various means that require some amount of coordination across the bulk of the society. Two key examples are economies of scale, and social cohesion to improve efficiency.
Note:TERZO LIMITE: BENI PUBBLICI. ECONOMIE DI SCALA E COESIONE SOCIALE

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Variation directly threatens economies of scale.
Note:PURTROPPO

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The Nature and Importance of Social Cohesion
Note:Ttttttttttt UN CASO CONTROVERSO

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Suppose that US jurisdiction X, where you do not live and will never visit, decides to make orphanages mandatory for all children born out of wedlock.
Note:ES DELL ORFANATROFIO

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Suppose they then institute a system of corporal punishment for the children in them.
Note:Cccccccccf

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“Some of the children traumatized into serial criminality by growing up in such orphanages are likely to leave this place and move to where I live,
Note:ESTERNALITÀ...ANCHE SOLO IN TERMINI DI DISGUSTO

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Like science, which requires a community of scientists who share a specific morale, all real organizations that succeed over time are held together partially by common assent to ideals, and are not perceived by the participants as merely rational deals between entirely self-interested parties.
Note:LA COMUNITÀ VA OLTRE LA RAZIONALITÀ

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collective—IBM, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the US Marine Corps, the University of Cambridge, or the United States of America—appeals to the rational self-interest of its members but also creates a sense of irrational identification with the enterprise.
Note:IDENTIFICAZIONE

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I define social cohesion as the amalgamation of this subjective attitude (the combination of irrational loyalty to a collective and a belief of “we’re all in it together”), the widespread expectation that this attitude is shared, and the behaviors that flow from it.
DEFINIZIONE DI CULTURA