THE FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ACTION: On the Origin of Individual Rights - Tapa dura

In this ambitious work, Stuart Hayashi clearly, systematically, and accessibly articulates the secular, philosophical, and moral foundations of a free society based on the supremacy of individual rights in which each person has the opportunity to pursue his flourishing and happiness. The author explains these foundations in language that will be understandable to educated laypersons, college students, and concerned citizens who follow current political issues covered by the media. While discussing the compatibility of human nature and individual rights, he makes a compelling and unprecedented argument that particular theories from the field of evolutionary psychology are congruent with Objectivism's views on human nature, individual rights, morality, social relationships, and the nature and rules of a proper government (i.e., a limited night watchman state). Hayashi's book is a masterful feat of intellectual integration from various disciplines that builds on the work of Ayn Rand and other intellectual giants, past and present. -- Edward W. Younkins, Wheeling Jesuit University Stuart Hayashi has written a scholarly, thoroughly researched, and deeply intellectual defense of individual rights and capitalism. -- Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire

The Nature of Liberty trilogy presents an ethical case for individual liberty, arguing from the philosophy of Ayn Rand and citing the findings of evolutionary psychology to demonstrate the compatibility between human nature and laissez-faire liberty. The first installment, The Freedom of Peaceful Action, makes the philosophic case that an approach starting from observational reason will indicate the practicality and ethical desirability of a free-market system based on rights.