The defense of political libertarianism on the basis of ethical common sense intuitions

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that considers individual freedom as a primary value. According to libertarianism, the main actor of social, political and economic life should be the individual; individual's freedom of personal choice cannot be sacrificed for the general good of the state and society. As a result of this approach, libertarians are characterized by their hesitant, skeptical and questioning attitudes towards the figure of the state with political authority, which appears as a serious obstacle to individual freedom. In this study, the intuitive/common sense libertarianism proposed by Michael Huemer and Dan Moller as a more plausible and broadly appealing alternative is introduced and evaluated, based on the determination that deontological, consequentialist and Neo-Aristotelian approaches are not ideal for grounding libertarian arguments. This new defense of libertarianism was carried out through a method in which moral norms based on common-sense ethical intuitions were taken as reference. The first part of the thesis is devoted to the defense of the intuitionist meta-ethical theory, which represents the possibility of reaching some moral truths through intuitions. As a result of the examinations made in the light of the criticisms of the competing theories, it has been determined that reliable common-sense intuitions represent the most accurate and functional elements to be made a methodological reference point. In the second part, in which the reflections of common-sense ethical intuitions on the state-individual dichotomy are examined, it is tried to show the contradiction between the most basic and widely accepted ethical intuitions of the actions of the state, which are characterized by the coercive nature, starting from the idea that individuals and the state are subject to ethical intuitions that point to the same moral norms in the axiological field. However, most theorists to date have argued that the state has authority that do not apply to individuals, namely, they have attributed special moral immunity to the state. Thus, this chapter also presents the problems of social contract theory—the most popular contemporary approach on which the idea that the state with political authority is immune to moral norms is based. At this point, the failures of the theories that give moral legitimacy to the state have shown that the state has ethical responsibilities just like individuals. But since all currently existing states continue to commit acts that are intuitively wrong when performed by individuals, it has been concluded that libertarian's skeptical, sometimes even rejective, critical approach to the figure of the state with political authority is reasonable. Lastly, it has been observed that the reflections of common-sense ethical intuitions on private property and free market are positive, which libertarians often support. Science Code : 110925 - 110913 Key Words : Libertarianism, Intuitionism, Common-sense, Authority, Property