The Utilitarian Classical Liberalism of Ludwig von Mises and Its Libertarian Misreception

This article examines Ludwig von Mises’s utilitarianism in the context of his liberal social theory. It contends that he sought to reorient classical liberalism away from natural law theory and refound it in utilitarianism. This significant shift distinguishes and differentiates Misesian liberalism from the classical liberal tradition with which Mises consciously identified it, as well as later Rothbardian libertarianism, which, while identifying with the Misesian tradition, reverted to a natural law philosophy that produced irreconcilable differences with Misesian liberalism over the legitimacy of the state.