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David D. Friedman | |
|---|---|
 Friedman in 2016 | |
| Born | David Director Friedman (1945-02-12)February 12, 1945 (age 80) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Cook |
| Children | Patri Friedman |
| Parents |
|
| Academic background | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) University of Chicago (MA,PhD) |
| Influences | Ronald Coase,Friedrich Hayek,Robert A. Heinlein,Milton Friedman,Rose Friedman,Adam Smith,Richard Timberlake,Alfred Marshall,Murray Rothbard |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics,law |
| School or tradition | Chicago school of economics[1] |
| Institutions | Santa Clara University |
| Notable ideas | The Machinery of Freedom Consequentialist libertarianism |
| Website | |
David Director Friedman (/ˈfriːdmən/; born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, and legal scholar. He is known for his textbook writings onmicroeconomics and thelibertarian theory ofanarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book,The Machinery of Freedom.[2] Described byWalter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist,[3] Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, includingPrice Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986),Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000),Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), andFuture Imperfect (2008).[4]
David Friedman is the son of economistsRose andMilton Friedman. He graduatedmagna cum laude fromHarvard University in 1965, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics.[5] He later earned a master's in 1967, and aPhD in 1971 in theoretical physics from theUniversity of Chicago.[6] Despite his later career, he never took a class for credit in either economics or law.[7] He was a professor of law atSanta Clara University from 2005 to 2017,[8] and a contributing editor forLiberty magazine. He is currently a ProfessorEmeritus. He is anatheist.[9] His son,Patri Friedman, has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularlyseasteading.[10]
In his bookThe Machinery of Freedom (1973), Friedman sketched a form ofanarcho-capitalism where all goods and services including law itself can be produced by thefree market. Friedman advocates an incrementalist approach to achieve anarcho-capitalism by gradualprivatization of areas that government is involved in, ultimately privatizing the law itself. In the book, he states his opposition to violentanarcho-capitalist revolution.[11]
He advocates aconsequentialist version of anarcho-capitalism, arguing for it on acost–benefit analysis of state versus no state.[12][13] It is contrasted with thenatural-rights approach as propounded most notably by economist and libertarian theoristMurray Rothbard.[citation needed]
Friedman is a longtime member of theSociety for Creative Anachronism, where he is known asDuke Cariadoc of the Bow. He is known throughout the worldwide society for his articles on the philosophy of recreationism and practical historical recreations, especially those relating to the medievalMiddle East.[14] His work is compiled in the popularCariadoc's Miscellany.[15] He is sometimes credited with founding the largest and longest-running SCA event, thePennsic War; as king of the Middle Kingdom he challenged the East Kingdom, and later as king of the East accepted the challenge and lost (to himself).[16]
He was a teenagewargamer who taught his school friend,Jack Radey, founder of People's War Games, how to play such wargames asTactics II.[17] Radey relates how Friedman and himself wrote toCharles S. Roberts claiming that they had found a first turn winning strategy for each of the two sides. Roberts replied that their interpretation of the rules was valid.[17][better source needed]
He is a long-timescience fiction fan, and has written three novels.Harald (Baen Books, 2006) is set in an invented world drawn from European history.[18]Salamander (2011) and its sequelBrothers (2020) arefantasy.
He has spoken in favor of anon-interventionist foreign policy.[19][independent source needed]
Much is made in libertarian circles of the division between 'Austrian' and 'Chicago' schools of economic theory, largely by people who understand neither. I am classified as 'Chicago'.
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