Friday, March 25, 2016

Tibor Machan, RIP

Tibor Machan (1939-2016), co-founder of Reason.


By David Gordon

Tibor Machan passed away yesterday, a few days after his 77th birthday. It is hard to believe that Tibor is no longer with us, as he was a man of indefatigable energy.  He was an ardent defender of libertarianism; and in a vast number of publications, he showed a rare ability to apply philosophical principles to contemporary issues. In Individuals and Their Rights and many other books and articles, he defended a version of ethical egoism that developed in his own way ideas from Aristotle and Ayn Rand. For him, philosophy was not an intellectual game, and he argued with great passion for free will and for objectivity in knowledge. He had an outsized personality, and no one who met him could forget him. If he disagreed with you, he was quick to let you know it; but if he was easily angered, he was quick to forgive. I expect to see many Tibor stories in the days and weeks ahead.





(via LRC)

1 comment:

  1. Tibor Machan was one of the first "big name" libertarians I met. In the late 1970's he agreed to speak to the Genesee Valley Chapter of the Society of Individual Liberty in Rochester, New York. As co-leaders of this group I and David Hoesly were thrilled when he agreed to travel to Rochester. Despite our modest facilities at a local Howard Johnson restaurant he was gracious and charming as he told of his struggle during the height of the cold war to leave Hungary as a teenager and eventually find success in the U.S. As part owner and editor of Reason Magazine and a philosopher he gave us plenty of ideas to continue our fight for liberty. His story inspired courage and his ideas fueled action. He will be missed.

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