Classical liberals, like me, always say that fundamentally one is free to do anything one wishes as long as one does not coerce others against their will. This very simple approach leads to everyone being better off through mutually beneficial trade (I sell you an apple for £1 because I value £1 more than the apple, and you buy the apple because you value the apple more than £1, hence both of us gain in value).
However this kind of freedom could result in situations which most people would regard as unreasonable. An example is production and sale of nuclear weapons. But banning production and sale of nuclear weapons results in breaking the classical liberal fundamental principle which undermines the coherence of classical liberalism.
Firstly let me outline different but related ideas: Sorites paradox and slippery slope fallacy. I will then use to show exactly how the classical liberal thinking may be faulty in terms of informal logic.
In Sorites paradox, one begins with a heap of sand and one continuously removes grains of sand until one is left with just one particle of sand. The paradox: at what time did the heap stop being a heap?
The slippery slope fallacy can be illustrated with the following scenario: a tree in a forest falls. The probability it makes another tree fall is 0.9. The probability that 3 trees end up falling is 0.9*0.9*0.9=0.729. The probability of more trees falling approaches 0 as one calculates the probability of more and more trees fall.
Now here is the puzzle:
In a liberal and open society law is such that one is free to do whatever one wishes as long as it does not impose on others. Clearly this means that one may make and sell firearms (single particle of sand). What about other weapons? Can one make and sell large nuclear weapons (the heap of sand)? Clearly any reasonable social order would curtail the freedom of individuals to produce and sell such weapons because the risk of use of such weapons is just too devastating. This reasonable step has just broken our liberal principle of freedom to allow anyone to do anything one wishes as long as it does not harm others. What about small nuclear weapons? These ought to be reasonably banned too. What about biological or chemical weapons? As we move down the scale of lethality at some point society must stop banning weapons in order to allow the freedom of the individual of having and trading a firearm, which reasonably ought to be allowed for self-defence. But this sudden break in what is considered too lethal and ok is arbitrary, just like when a heap of sand stops being a heap and becomes just a number of particles of sand. For me it is unreasonable for people own fully automatic assault rifles but pump action shotguns are ok, while for others it is very unreasonable for people to own pump action shotguns while very reasonable for people to own assault rifles. An open liberal society thus must either ban all weapons or not ban any weapons to stick to the coherence of the principle that law is not arbitrary.
Some problems arise from such a scenario. Firstly, if an open and liberal society wishes to avoid arbitrary power of the administrator, it must allow all weapons to be made and freely traded or none at all. Clearly both of these are undesirable to the classical liberal. What is the objective test the society use to define weapons which cannot be made and traded?
Secondly we assumed that there is a slippery slope which inevitably will lead to all forms of weapons being banned if society bans just nuclear weapons. However as we have seen with the trees in a forest example, this could be a fallacy in itself as the individual events in the chain are discrete and may break the chain that leads to the supposedly inevitable event of all weapons being banned. The slippery slope argument which is often used by classical liberals may be a fallacy if the events in the chain are not clearly illustrated and proved to be likely. Although history often demonstrates that slippery slope to an illiberal outcome often occurs, we cannot place our faith fully into the idea that it will occur again if a piece of legislation which is illiberal, is passed. By arguing that since other slippery slopes have occurred in the past, they will happen again we are also hitting upon the David Hume’s problem of induction (just because something often happened in the past does not guarantee it will occur again in the future). So by using the slippery slope argument the classical liberal runs the risk of two logical fallacies: the fallacy of slippery slope and the problem of induction.
Clearly there is some thinking to be done by classical liberals. Specifically there appears to be some very reasonable but nonetheless arbitrary limits to freedom and classical liberal argument against certain legislation may be unfounded in logic (but not in history).
However this kind of freedom could result in situations which most people would regard as unreasonable. An example is production and sale of nuclear weapons. But banning production and sale of nuclear weapons results in breaking the classical liberal fundamental principle which undermines the coherence of classical liberalism.
Firstly let me outline different but related ideas: Sorites paradox and slippery slope fallacy. I will then use to show exactly how the classical liberal thinking may be faulty in terms of informal logic.
In Sorites paradox, one begins with a heap of sand and one continuously removes grains of sand until one is left with just one particle of sand. The paradox: at what time did the heap stop being a heap?
The slippery slope fallacy can be illustrated with the following scenario: a tree in a forest falls. The probability it makes another tree fall is 0.9. The probability that 3 trees end up falling is 0.9*0.9*0.9=0.729. The probability of more trees falling approaches 0 as one calculates the probability of more and more trees fall.
Now here is the puzzle:
In a liberal and open society law is such that one is free to do whatever one wishes as long as it does not impose on others. Clearly this means that one may make and sell firearms (single particle of sand). What about other weapons? Can one make and sell large nuclear weapons (the heap of sand)? Clearly any reasonable social order would curtail the freedom of individuals to produce and sell such weapons because the risk of use of such weapons is just too devastating. This reasonable step has just broken our liberal principle of freedom to allow anyone to do anything one wishes as long as it does not harm others. What about small nuclear weapons? These ought to be reasonably banned too. What about biological or chemical weapons? As we move down the scale of lethality at some point society must stop banning weapons in order to allow the freedom of the individual of having and trading a firearm, which reasonably ought to be allowed for self-defence. But this sudden break in what is considered too lethal and ok is arbitrary, just like when a heap of sand stops being a heap and becomes just a number of particles of sand. For me it is unreasonable for people own fully automatic assault rifles but pump action shotguns are ok, while for others it is very unreasonable for people to own pump action shotguns while very reasonable for people to own assault rifles. An open liberal society thus must either ban all weapons or not ban any weapons to stick to the coherence of the principle that law is not arbitrary.
Some problems arise from such a scenario. Firstly, if an open and liberal society wishes to avoid arbitrary power of the administrator, it must allow all weapons to be made and freely traded or none at all. Clearly both of these are undesirable to the classical liberal. What is the objective test the society use to define weapons which cannot be made and traded?
Secondly we assumed that there is a slippery slope which inevitably will lead to all forms of weapons being banned if society bans just nuclear weapons. However as we have seen with the trees in a forest example, this could be a fallacy in itself as the individual events in the chain are discrete and may break the chain that leads to the supposedly inevitable event of all weapons being banned. The slippery slope argument which is often used by classical liberals may be a fallacy if the events in the chain are not clearly illustrated and proved to be likely. Although history often demonstrates that slippery slope to an illiberal outcome often occurs, we cannot place our faith fully into the idea that it will occur again if a piece of legislation which is illiberal, is passed. By arguing that since other slippery slopes have occurred in the past, they will happen again we are also hitting upon the David Hume’s problem of induction (just because something often happened in the past does not guarantee it will occur again in the future). So by using the slippery slope argument the classical liberal runs the risk of two logical fallacies: the fallacy of slippery slope and the problem of induction.
Clearly there is some thinking to be done by classical liberals. Specifically there appears to be some very reasonable but nonetheless arbitrary limits to freedom and classical liberal argument against certain legislation may be unfounded in logic (but not in history).
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