Von Humboldts
13 August 2006
The Editor, New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
There’s irony in Alexander von Humboldt's role in sparking the modern environmental movement (Candice Millard, "Thinking Globally," August 13) - a movement with too many adherents today who love the environment so passionately that they hate, or at least treat with indifference, property rights and individual liberty.
Humboldt's brother, Wilhelm - described by F.A. Hayek as Germany's "greatest philosopher of freedom" - understood that charging the state with correcting the world's many imperfections puts precious freedom in peril. So profound was Wilhelm's respect for freedom that he wrote, in his classic 1810 book The Limits of State Action, that "Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form."
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times Book Review
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
There’s irony in Alexander von Humboldt's role in sparking the modern environmental movement (Candice Millard, "Thinking Globally," August 13) - a movement with too many adherents today who love the environment so passionately that they hate, or at least treat with indifference, property rights and individual liberty.
Humboldt's brother, Wilhelm - described by F.A. Hayek as Germany's "greatest philosopher of freedom" - understood that charging the state with correcting the world's many imperfections puts precious freedom in peril. So profound was Wilhelm's respect for freedom that he wrote, in his classic 1810 book The Limits of State Action, that "Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form."
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Thursday May 3, 2007 at 11:03am