|  John
Hospers has two significant "firsts" by his name: he was the
first presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party, and his book
Libertarianism was one of the first full-length studies of
the modern libertarian philosophy.
Born in a small town near Des Moines, Iowa, Hospers grew up speaking
Dutch as a first language. In college, Hospers admired philosophers
David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Plato, and Aristotle. He went on to earn
a Master's degree in literature from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D.
in philosophy from Columbia University.
In 1961, Hospers was introduced to novelist Ayn Rand. The meeting blossomed
into friendship, and the two spent many evenings in philosophical conversation.
Hospers later recalled those talks as "among the most intellectually
exhilarating of my life." The Daily Objectivist wrote:
"Hospers wasn't exactly a libertarian when he met Ayn Rand, but
he largely came around to her way of thinking..."
In 1971, Hospers published Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy
for Tomorrow, a book-length study of the modern philosophy of liberty.
Along with Murray Rothbard's For A New Liberty: The Libertarian
Manifesto and Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia,
it is widely considered to be one of the defining books of the libertarian
movement.
At the Libertarian Party's inaugural national convention in Denver,
Colorado in 1972, Hospers was invited to write the party's Statement
of Principles. Later, at the same convention, he was nominated to be
its first presidential candidate. "I was a little bit thrilled,
and a little bit terrorized" about winning the nomination, he wrote
later in an article for LewRockwell.com (August 23, 2003). "One
day I was a college professor, and the next day a candidate for the
nation's highest office." With vice presidential candidate Tonie
Nathan, the Libertarian ticket appeared on two state ballots and won
3,907 votes. What had started out as a political footnote ended up in
history textbooks when Hospers and Nathan won one Electoral College
vote (from renegade Richard Nixon elector Roger MacBride).
After his presidential bid, Hospers returned to the University of Southern
California's philosophy department, where he taught courses in ethics,
aesthetics, and the philosophy of law. Since his retirement in 1988,
he has served as USC's professor emeritus of philosophy.
The author of over 100 articles, Hospers also wrote Meaning and
Truth in the Arts (1967), Introductory Readings in Aesthetics
(1969), Artistic Expression (1971), Understanding the Arts
(1982), Law and the Market (1985), Human Conduct: Problems
of Ethics (1995), and An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis,
Fourth Edition (1996). In addition, he served as a Senior Editor
for Liberty magazine, editor of The Personalist, and
was a film reviewer for Reason (1974-1982).
In later years, Hospers served on the honorary advisory board of the
Republican Liberty Caucus. In 2002, an hour-long video about his life,
work, and philosophy was released by the Liberty Fund of Indianapolis
as part of its Classics of Liberty series.
-- Bill Winter |
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Quotable
"According
to libertarianism, the role of government should be limited to the retaliatory
use of force against those who have initiated its use. It should not
enter into other areas, such as religion, social organization, and economics."
-- John Hospers, quoted in Tibor Machan's The Libertarian Alternative
(1974)
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