Libertarian philosopher Tibor Machan had a wide-ranging 3-hour interview on C-SPAN’s BookTV a few months ago. Titled “In Depth with Tibor Machan,” the May 1 show description reads:
Tibor Machan talked about his life, work, and career. Topics included morality in business, capitalism versus individualism, and the pros and cons of the Libertarian philosophy. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications from the grounds of the University Park Campus of the University of Southern California during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Tibor Machan holds the R.C. Hoiles Endowed Chair in Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. He is also professor emeritus of philosophy at Auburn University and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Professor Machan is the co-founder and former editor of Reason magazine. Tibor Machan is the sole author of 29 English language books, the co-author of four books, the sole editor of 15 books, and co-editor of five books. His books include The Pseudo-Science of B.F. Skinner (1973), Liberty and Culture: Essays on the Idea of a Free Society (1989), Private Rights and Public Illusions (1995); Ayn Rand (2000); and The Promise of Liberty: A Non-Utopian Vision (2008). His memoir, The Man Without a Hobby: Adventures of a Gregarious Egoist, was published in 2004.
The video and a transcript are available here.
Douglas B. Rasmussen, Aeon J. Skoble, and Douglas J. Den Uyl have produced a festschrift in honor of my longtime friend, the libertarian philosopher Tibor Machan. Entitled Reality, Reason, and Rights: Essays in Honor of Tibor R. Machan, it is published by Lexington Books and should be available next month from Amazon.
Skoble was editor for years of Reason Papers, the journal started by Machan (I’m now on its editorial board; and it inspired the name of my own journal, Libertarian Papers). In fact my first scholarly article, was published in Reason Papers in 1992 when Machan was editor. I remember that I wrote the initial draft of that article by hand, in cursive, when I was in the LL.M. program at King’s College London (no computers!), and submitted it to Machan after it was rejected by the King’s College London’s law journal. I remember speaking with Machan on a pay phone from King’s, about revisions to my article. We’ve been friends and kept in contact ever since, at Mises Institute conferences and, now, by Skype.
Tibor has long been a prolific and tireless advocate of the philosophy of liberty. Two of his books were big influences on me, Human Rights and Human Liberties: A Radical Reconsideration of the American Political Tradition (1975) and the even better Individuals and Their Rights (1989) (as was Rasmussen and Den Uyl’s Liberty and Nature: An Aristotelian Defense of Liberal Order).
Assembling a collection of essays like this is not easy (I was editor of a festschrift as well, so I know this from personal experience), so the editors are to be commended. This is a well-deserved honor for Professor Machan.
The description and table of contents from the publisher are appended below. [Keep reading…]
