Letter 1.
If the Martians threaten to blow up our entire planet unless someone kills innocent person Joe, it is murder to do so, but it would not be wrong to murder him, paradoxically, saving all others except for him.
Here are some readings on that:
Block, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011
Block, Walter E. 2001. “Jonah Goldberg and the Libertarian Axiom on Non-Aggression.”
June 28; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/orig/block1.html
Block, Walter E. 2002. “Radical Privatization and other Libertarian Conundrums,” The International Journal of Politics and Ethics, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 165-175; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/radical_privatization.pdf (murder park)
Block, Walter E. 2003. “The Non-Aggression Axiom of Libertarianism,” February 17; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block26.html
Block, Walter E. 2004. “Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part I” Reason Papers, Vol. 27, Fall, pp. 117-133;
http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block_radical-libertarianism-rp.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2006. “Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part II” Reason Papers, Vol. 28, Spring, pp. 85-109; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/block_radical-libertarianism-rp.pdf; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/block_radical-libertarianism-rp.pdf; http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/28/rp_28_7.pdf; (death penalty justified, net taxpayer, ruling class analysis p. 87)
Block, Walter E. 2010. “Response to Jakobsson on human body shields.” Libertarian Papers. http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2010/lp-2-25.pdf
Block, Walter E. 2011. “The Human Body Shield,” Journal of Libertarian Studies; Vol. 22, pp. 625-630; http://mises.org/journals/jls/22_1/22_1_30.pdf
Letter 2
From: G
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 1:36 PM
To: Walter Block <[email protected]
Subject: Additional comment on murder
Walter,
What if Joe were your mother, father, sister, or brother, or was your
child?
Would murder still be proper for the “greater good?” Or forbid, what
if you were Joe?
G
Letter 3
On Nov 13, 2019, at 4:06 PM, Walter Block <[email protected] wrote:
Dear G:
Murder is always, without exception, a violation of the NAP, and
should be punished. But, in this case, it would be moral thing to do.
Of course I would kill my mother, father, sister, brother, child if it
was stipulated that if I didn’t, the entire world would be blown up,
and they would die along with everyone else.
There’s a saying to the effect that weird cases make bad law. Probably
true.
But they make great philosophy. Without contrary to fact conditionals
of this sort, we cannot possibly probe our beloved libertarian
philosophy to its furthest reaches, something I’m dedicated to doing.
Please read my essay on the libertarian concentration camp guard:
Block, Walter E. 2009. “Libertarian punishment theory: working for,
and donating to, the state” Libertarian Papers, Vol. 1;
http://libertarianpapers.org/articles/2009/lp-1-17.pdf;
http://libertarianpapers.org/2009/17-libertarian-punishment-theory-wor
king-for-and-donating-to-the-state/#comments
Best regards,
Walter
Letter 4
—–Original Message—–
From: G
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 5:19 PM
To: Walter Block <[email protected]
Subject: Re: Additional comment on murder
Sorry Walter, I would die myself before I would murder on orders, but not until I attempted to harm the real aggressor first.
These scenarios to me seem counterproductive, because instead of clarifying a proper and sane position, it clouds reality with non-sensical arguments, and in the process weakens any legitimate libertarian core beliefs.
Best … G
Letter 5
Nice try. Again, you are evading the example. If you kill yourself, they blow up the world. They want YOU to murder an innocent person, bless their beastly hearts.
Walter E. Block
2:01 am on December 22, 2019
