Ben Burgis is a philosopher & left-wing theorist. He teaches Logic for Left-Wing Debaters & Activists, writes a column for Jacobin & hosts the Give Them An Argument podcast. Ben has debated Walter Bock, David Friedman, Dave Smith, Keith Knight & many other libertarian thinkers and content-creators. He joins me for episode 80 of The Agora to compare & contrast the logical underpinnings of our respective philosophies; socialism & agorism.
-For more on the Philosophy of Truth, I recommend checking out Simon Blackburn's On Truth
-Ben briefly mentioned Quine
-Quine's Elementary Logic was one of the books I learned formal logic from
-WARNING: This is NOT an easy read
-Alternatively, check out Tarsky's Intro to Logic
-I mentioned theoretical physicist Sean Carroll's book on Quantum Theory, Something Deeply Hidden
-I can't recommend this book enough!!!***
-For more on Praxeology, check out this episode of The Agora with Walter Block, appropriately titled "Praxeology"
-Ben didn't sound like a fan of MMT
-Although I haven't read Stephanie Kelton's book, I did watch this debate Bob Murphy did. Needless to say, I also reject MMT.
-I asked Ben about the "coordination problem."
-Mises' Economic Calculation In a Socialist Commonwealth is the go-to book here.
-Ben recommended Francis Spufford's Red Plenty for a non-specialist view of the coordination problem.
-Ben also recommended The People's Republic of Walmart by Leigh Phillips & Michael Rozworski
-Michael Albert's Parecon
-The view of property rights Plato lays out in The Republic contrasts starkly with Aristotle's view in Politics.
-**If you want to read the Greeks, I don't recommend audiobooks**
-Left-libertarian, Roderick Long's defense of public property in the context of Lockean Homesteading Theory can be found here.
-Ben's debate with David Friedman was epic, & I cannot recommend it enough!!
-Ben's account of the end of feudalism contrasts sharply with the Austro-libertarian view.
-The historical account I prefer can be found in Hoppe's A Theory of Socialism & Capitalism
-Bahm-Bawerk's critique of Marx's Theory of Exploitation is perhaps best laid out by Joe Salerno, in the clip below:
-Ben mentioned David Schweickart's book, After Capitalism
-Bhaskar Sunkara's Socialist Manifesto can be found here
-When I asked Ben what resources he recommends for learning more about leftist philosophy, other than whats been mentioned here, he brought up G.A. Cohen's, Self-Ownership, Freedom & Equality.
-He also recommended Cohen's paper, The Labor Theory of Value & The Concept of Exploitation