# Rights and Radicalism **URL:** **By** Grant Babcock, Aaron Ross Powell, Trevor Burrus **Published:** September 1, 2017 --- Grant Babcock joins us this week to talk about an essay he wrote in defense of natural rights-based libertarianism. Grant Babcock joins us this week to talk about an essay he wrote in defense of natural rights-based libertarianism. What are natural rights? Are they intuitive? Is radicalism in defense of rights-based approaches to libertarianism effective? Is it necessary? **Show Notes and Further Reading** This episode of Free Thoughts was inspired by Grant Babcock's "[The Robustness of Natural Rights Libertarianism: A Reply to Lindsey](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/robustness-natural-rights-libertarianism-reply-lindsey)," which he wrote in response to Brink Lindsey's essay "[The Poverty of Natural Rights Libertarianism](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/poverty-natural-rights-libertarianism)." The episode references the following texts and previous episodes of Free Thoughts: - [The Late, Great Libertarian Macho Flash](http://www.lpmich.org/help/s99/flash.php) by Michael Cloud - Trevor mentions [this Free Thoughts episode where we get into nitty-gritty details of social contract theory](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/must-you-obey-government). - [Arguments for Liberty](https://www.libertarianism.org/books/arguments-liberty), edited by Aaron Ross Powell and Grant Babcock - Murray Rothbard, “[Do You Hate the State?](http://telegra.ph/Do-You-Hate-the-State-08-30)” - Matt Zwolinski, “[Libertarianism and Pollution](http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2443030)” (SSRN paper) - [_Order without Law_](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674641693) by Robert Ellickson - [_Governing the Commons_ by Elinor Ostrom](https://www.amazon.com/Governing-Commons-Evolution-Institutions-Collective/dp/0521405998) - “[Why Libertarians and Conservatives Should Stop Opposing the Welfare State](https://niskanencenter.org/blog/libertarians-conservatives-stop-opposing-welfare-state)” by Brink Lindsey - “[The Structure of a Set of Compossible Rights](http://www.jstor.org/stable/2025928)” by Hillel Steiner - Tom Palmer [reviewed Steiner's book](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/review-hillel-steiners-essay-rights), _An Essay on Rights_. - “[The Basis and Content of Human Rights](https://www.jstor.org/stable/24219090)” by Alan Gewirth - “[Ordering Rights Consistently: Or What We Do and Do Not Have Rights To](https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/ordering_rights_consistently.pdf)” by Roger Pilon