Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good

A truism of academe is when faced with a dilemma, make a distinction. Epstein, professor of law at the University of Chicago and author of Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care?, follows this advice in trying to reconcile individual liberty and the common good. In lucid, readable prose he argues that the two are compatible, provided that certain distinctions and qualifications are made. Epstein spends considerable time explicating the laissez-faire doctrine, insisting that it need not glorify the individual at the expense of society: when applied pragmatically rather than dogmatically, it maximizes the welfare of all. Epstein realizes, of course, that the Achilles heel of the free-market system is the inequitable distribution of wealth, but he believes that a ""voluntary redistribution"" will solve the problem, although ""it will always leave some individuals short."" Similarly, he says, it's ""always painful to deny recovery for an individual in need"" but we don't want a system that encourages self-destructive behavior. At this point one suspects that Epstein's book does not reconcile freedom and equality so much as champion laissez-faire capitalism with some limitations. One also wonders whether he shouldn't care more that Adam Smith's unseen hand can become the unseen foot, kicking those who are down. (Sept.)