Tibor R. Machan Quotes
This right to life, this right to liberty, and this right to pursue one's happiness is unabashedly individualistic, without in the slightest denying at the same time our thoroughly social nature. It's only that our social relations, while vital to us all, must be chosen - that is what makes the crucial difference.
Machan, Tibor R. Classical Individualism: The Supreme Importance of Each Human Being. Routledge, 1998.
Most politicians and philosophers would argue that liberty is both an individual right and a group right. However there are money who do not recognize group rights and feel that they are inimical to individual rights.
Political opponents of FDR claimed the New Deal programs would destroy individualism. That was one of the likely outcomes of the Great Depression had the New Deal programs not worked to improve the economy and bring relief to the millions of unemployed, starving and destitute people who would likely have turned to Fascism as did Italy and Germany. Roosevelt and his staff used this phrase often.
Tibor Richard Machan was a Hungarian-American philosopher. A professor emeritus in the department of philosophy at Auburn University, Machan held the R. C. Hoiles Chair of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University in Orange, California until 31 December 2014.
