Property as the Foundation of Murray N. Rothbard's Concept of Ethics

The research is devoted to an analysis of the ideas of american philosopher and economist Murray Newton Rothbard. He was one of the main representatives of right-libertarian intellectual tradition. At the core of this tradition is the idea that society has to be based on a capitalistic system of private property, while the state does not have the right to regulate free market. The analysis of Rothbard's concept of ethics is important from the scientific point of view because Rothbard tried to provide ethical justification for libertarian position: support of the private property and resistance to state regulation. The aim of the research is to find out whether libertarian ethics is the original concept or the synthesis of other anti-statist ideas of previous centuries. Also, we will try to understand which role the concept of property plays in the Rothbardian ethics. In the current research comparative method will be used in order to compare the ideas of Roерифкв and other philosophers to whom Rothbard refers as his intellectual ancestors. Also the philosophical and formal legal methods will be used in order to analyse the ethical system of Rothbard from the broad philosophical point of view. Regarding the research’s results, Rothbard does not propose an original and completely new ethical system. On the contrary, he relies on the big scope of ideas of other representatives of anti-statist intellectual tradition. Rothbard’s ethical concept is considered to be radical in the academia, but it is only because he used the ideas which are expelled from current scientific discourse.