Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: Jean Meslier on Property
Was Jean Meslier a communist? George H. Smith explores this tricky issue.
Explore
George H. Smith
George H. Smith was formerly Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Humane Studies, a lecturer on American History for Cato Summer Seminars, and Executive Editor of Knowledge Products. Smith's fourth and most recent book, The System of Liberty, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: Shaftesbury on the Value of Ridicule
George H. Smith explores Shaftesbury’s defense of ridicule and satire in matters of religion.
Excursions
Ayn Rand on Fascism
George H. Smith explores Rand’s contention that America was sliding down a slippery slope to fascism.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: Introduction
George H. Smith begins his series on the historical relationship between religious skepticism and libertarianism.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: The Christian Theory of Property
George H. Smith discusses the traditional Christian theory of private property and how it was viewed as the result of original sin.
Excursions
Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism: Bernard Mandeville
George H. Smith explains why Mandeville’s ideas about vice made him one of the most notorious writers of his time.
Excursions
Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism: Mandeville on the Benefits of Vice
George H. Smith discusses Bernard Mandeville’s defense of legal prostitution and other vices.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: Early Christianity and the Modern Libertarian Movement
Does the modern libertarian movement have any significant similarities to the early Christian movement? Smith explores this intriguing possibility.
Excursions
John Locke: Hermeneutics and Labor
George H. Smith explains Locke’s ideas on how we should interpret a philosophic text, and the relationship between labor and private property.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: How Freethinkers Attempted to Avoid Persecution
George H. Smith explains some tactics that early freethinkers used in the attempt to avoid punishment for blasphemy and other religious crimes.
Excursions
John Locke: Some Qualifications in Locke’s Theory of Property
George H. Smith explains how Locke dealt with some problems in the traditional Christian theory of private property.
Excursions
Ernst Cassirer on Fascism and National Socialism
George H. Smith discusses the mythological thinking that dominated Nazi ideology, as explained in Cassirer’s book The Myth of the State.
Excursions
Freethought and Freedom: Jean Meslier and the Catholic Church
George H. Smith explains the role of the Catholic Church in the French government, and how Jean Meslier reconciled his atheism with his role as a priest.
Excursions
John Locke: Money and Private Property
George H. Smith explains the significance, for Locke, of the increased productivity caused by labor, and the relationship between money and property.
Excursions
John Locke: In Search of the Radical Locke
George H. Smith explains an important controversy about when the Two Treatises was written and the influence of the Levellers on Locke.
Excursions
John Locke: Some Problems in Locke’s Theory of Private Property
George H. Smith discusses Robert Nozick’s criticisms of Locke’s property theory.
Excursions
Self-Interest and Social Order in Classical Liberalism: Bernard Mandeville v. Francis Hutcheson
George H. Smith discusses what Bernard Mandeville meant in saying that private vices produce public benefits, and how Francis Hutcheson criticized that theory.
Excursions
Religious Toleration Versus Religious Freedom
George H. Smith distinguishes “tolerating” religious difference from recognizing a genuine right to religious freedom.