Yesterday’s post, “On liberty, bestiality, and Glenn Reynolds,” must have touched a nerve, judging from the comments it has received. Most of the comments were from libertarians, disagreeing with one or another aspect of my thesis. Rather than attempt to reply to each objection, I will summarize their main themes, and answer them here. Feel free to continue the discussion in the comments to this post.

I. Humans more dignified than animals? Sez who?

As I expected, quite a few libertarian commenters directly attacked the idea that humans possess any inherent dignity. One said dogs have more moral worth than humans. Others cited specific examples of very immoral humans, notably a Mr. Hitler, to prove that our race has no dignity worth defending. While I am glad that they proved my point for me, that “human dignity has no place in the libertarian worldview,” I respectfully disagree with them.
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