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Stefan Basil Molyneux (/stɛˈfɑːn ˈmɑːlɪnjuː/; born 24 September 1966) is a Canadian philosopher, author, and online broadcaster. Molyneux's areas of focus include political philosophy, libertarianism, cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), secular ethics (including the non-aggression principle), atheism, history, non-violent parenting, personal and familial relationship issues. He is an anarcho-capitalist and atheist. He has written numerous articles and smaller essays which have been published on libertarian websites including LewRockwell.com, antiwar.com, and Strike The Root, and has recorded numerous podcasts and videos, and self-published several books. Jeffrey Tucker of the Ludwig von Mises Institute described Molyneux as "one of the single most influential libertarian thinkers of our times". In 2013, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, from which he has successfully recovered.

Early life

Although interested in computers from a young age, Molyneux initially pursued acting and play-writing, spending two years at the National Theatre School of Canada and graduated from the Humber School for Writers. He later studied literature, history, economics, philosophy, and debate at the Glendon College of York University. Molyneux went on to acquire a B.A. in History from McGill University and an M.A. in History, focusing on the history of philosophy, from University of Toronto. His thesis analyzed the philosophies of Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke and their political implications.

In early 1995, Stefan and his brother Hugh Molyneux co-founded Caribou Systems Corporation, an environmental management software firm located in the Willowdale area of Toronto. Molyneux held the position of Chief Technology Officer until the company was sold in 2000.

Career

Viewpoints

Dispute resolution organizations

Molyneux's 2005 essay The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives describes the concept of dispute resolution organizations ("DROs") which combine some of the qualities of insurance companies, credit agencies, and personal defense. In a stateless society, DROs could be employed by individuals to resolve disputes on their behalf as a replacement for the services previously provided by governments. This idea was further explored and expanded in his book Practical Anarchy.

Familial relationships

In articles, blog posts, and his books On Truth and Real-Time Relationships, Moylneux explored his view that relationships between all individuals should be entirely voluntary, and that this also extends to familial relationships. He maintains that adult children whose parents or other birth family relations were abusive or neglectful should feel free to disassociate with them entirely if they no longer desire contact. To distinguish between family relationships chosen as adults (such as spousal relationships) and the family that people are born into, Molyneux referred to the childhood family as the "FOO", an acronym "Family of Origin" (borrowed from academic psychology).

In 2008, one Freedomain Radio member's parents' complaints about these ideas were published as part of a series of newspaper articles. The parents claimed that Freedomain Radio is a therapeutic cult after the 18-year-old member left home and severed all contact with his family. In response Molyneux said that only about 20 FDR members had "deFOOed" their families, compared to 50,000 regular listeners.

Universally Preferable Behaviour

Molyneux's most ambitious, and perhaps most contentious, philosophical work to date is his self-published 2007 book Universally Preferable Behavior: A Rational Proof for Secular Ethics ("UPB"). In it, he describes his approach for evaluating the validity of moral theories using logic and empiricism, comparing it to the use of the scientific method to prove physical theories. He proposes that if any moral statement lacks internal consistency by having flawed or self-contradictory structure, or if it can be show to conflict with the rules of logic, it can be dismissed without further examination. The moral statement is then investigated for external consistency, by confirming that it adheres to observable evidence and arrives at the correct result for cases generally accepted as immoral, such as rape, murder, and theft.

Libertarian David Gordon reviewed the book in The Mises Review in 2012 and stated, "is arguments are often preposterously bad" and documenting what he sees as several flaws in philosophical reasoning, though he did praise Molyneux's insights into external verification, agreeing that "f a theory cannot show that a rule that purported to make obligatory is ill-formed, the theory should be rejected." Molyneux replied in a detailed response. Gordon later wrote a reply.

Freedomain Radio

In 2005, Molyneux started a podcast called "Freedomain Radio" ("FDR"). Shortly thereafter, he opened a website under that name as a community for his listeners and a place to distribute various self-published books which he makes available as free downloads on his website. His broadcasts now primarily occur via his YouTube channel, which as of 2014 has 130,000 subscribers and 25 million channel views, and has been called "the largest and most popular philosophy show in the world" He has conducted interviews with various public figures on topics relating to education, academia, psychology, politics, and economics. Notable guests include Noam Chomsky, Peter Joseph, and Divorce Corp director Joseph Sorge.

Public appearances

Molyneux has spoken at numerous libertarian conferences and events. He delivered a keynote at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum in March 2009, where he presented his "Against Me" argument - a method of conducting a political debates by inviting opponents to admit that they advocate for direct initiation of force. He has also spoken at FreedomFest in Las Vegas in 2012 and PorcFest in Lancaster, NH in 2013.

Molyneux has appeared on both television and radio. He was a commentator on talk program Adam vs The Man. He has also appeared on RT's The Keiser Report, ReasonTV, as well as The Alex Jones Show. Since 2012, Molyneux has guest-hosted the Peter Schiff Show several times. In 2013 he appeared as a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience.

In 2014, Molyneux began a series of appearances advocating the use of Bitcoin for political change. He spoke at the Texas Bitcoin Conference, the Bitcoin Expo 2014 in Toronto, and The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam.

Works

Non-fiction

• Against the Gods? A Concise Guide to Atheism and Agnosticism (with Peter Boghossian)
• On Truth: The Tyranny of Illusion (2007)
• Universally Preferable Behaviour (UPB): A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics (2007)
• Real-Time Relationships: The Logic of Love (2008)
• Everyday Anarchy: The Freedom of Now (2008)
• Practical Anarchy: The Freedom of the Future (2008)
• How (NOT) to Achieve Freedom (2008)

Fiction

• Revolutions (2002) ISBN 1-59129-463-0. OCLC 671025010
• The God of Atheists (2007)

References

1. ^ "The Wisdom of Socrates with Peter Boghossian and Stefan Molyneux". The Peter Schiff Show. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
2. Molyneux, Stefan. Objectivism Part 2: Ethics Retrieved April 28, 2014
3. ^ Tu Thanh Ha (December 12, 2008). "How a cyberphilosopher convinced followers to cut off family". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
4. ^ Sawers, Paul. "How cryptocurrencies can curb unsustainable growth in government power (interview with Stefan Molyneux)". The Next Web. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
5. ^ "Our Staff > Stefan Molyneux". Casey Research. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
6. ^ Matt Welch & Tracy Oppenheimer (October 6, 2012). "Free Domain Radio's Stefan Molyneux on the Inevitable Growth of the State". ReasonTV. Reason. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
7. ^ Huber, Suzanne (Apr 16, 2014). "Toronto Hosts Canada's First Bitcoin Expo". Techvibes. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
8. ^ Rees, Mark. "Bitcoin's YouTube Missionaries". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
9. "Articles by Stefan Molyneux". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
10. "Columns by Stefan Molyneux". Strike The Root. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
11. Kinsella, Stephan (March 12, 2012). "Jeff Tucker on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"". The Libertarian Standard. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
12. Molyneux, Stefan (2013-05-02). "A Personal Update from Stefan Molyneux". Retrieved 2013-05-02.
13. ^ Burg, Robert (May 26, 1997). "Their software keeps tabs on site data". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
14. da Costa, Cathy (February 8, 1988). "World Champions at Glendon". Pro Tem. York University/Glendon College. p. 4. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
15. About. Freedomain Radio. Retrieved on 2013-07-14.
16. Molyneux, Stefan (October 24, 2005). "The Stateless Society An Examination of Alternatives". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
17. Awuku, Christopher (February 11, 2007). "DRO' Protection: An Example of How It Could Work". Strike The Root. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
18. Molyneux, Stefan (April 9, 2005). "Are People Just Stupid?". Freedomain Blog. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
19. Hilpern, Kate (15 November 2008). "You will never see me again". The Guardian. Retrieved January 7, 2009.
20. Powell, Robin (December 29, 2008). "Website Led Teen To Quit Family". SkyNews. Retrieved December 28, 2013.
21. ^ Freedomain Radio > Free Books. Freedomain Radio. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
22. ^ Gordon, David (4 July 2012). "The Molyneux Problem". Ludwig von Mises Institute - The Mises Review. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
23. Molyneux, Stefan (7 July 2012). "A Response to David Gordon's Review "The Molyneux Problem"". Freedomain Radio. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
24. Gordon, David (11 July 2012). "Mr. Molyneux Responds". Ludwig von Mises Institute - Mises.org Daily. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
25. Freedomain Radio > Podcasts. Freedomain Radio. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
26. ^ Hortex, Alice (April 14, 2014). "The Psychology of Money: Stefan Molyneux at Texas BTC Conference". Cointelegraph. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
27. Bitcoin Alliance of Canada (March 28, 2014). "Bitcoin Expo Announces Conference Highlights, Sponsors and Exhibitors for Toronto April 11-13 Conference". Marketwired. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
28. "Stefan Molyneux YouTube Channel". Retrieved 2014-04-27.
29. "Noam Chomsky: The Race War of Drug Prohibition". 2013-12-24. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
30. "Zeitgeist Versus the Market - Peter Joseph Debates Stefan Molyneux". 2013-09-23. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
31. "Director Joseph Sorge Interviewed by Stefan Molyneux". Divorce Corp. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
32. "New Hampshire Liberty Forum - Keynote Speaker: Stefan Molyneux from Freedomain Radio". Retrieved May 1, 2014.
33. "FREESTYLING at FREEDOM FEST with STEFAN MOLYNEUX and JEFFREY TUCKER". The TrepaNation. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
34. "Stefan Molyneux at PorcFestX". PorcFest. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
35. "Government philosophy, Screw the Pundits, Free Speech, Revolutions, Love-a-lutions, Show Dedication". Adam vs. The Man. RT. Retrieved April 12, 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
36. Keiser, Max. "On the Edge with Stefan Molyneux". The Keiser Report. RT. Retrieved 8 August 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
37. Jones, Alex. "Monday 7-11-2011 – The Alex Jones Show with Stefan Molyneux". The Alex Jones Show. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
38. "The Peter Schiff Show! Hosted by Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio". Retrieved 22 July 2012.
39. Kinsella, Stephan. "KOL106 Peter Schiff Show: Obamacare, Patent Reform". StephanKinsella.com. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
40. JRE #396 - STEFAN MOLYNEUX Accessed: 11 March 2014
41. "The Cryptocurrency Revolution". The Next Web. Retrieved April 25, 2014.

External links

• Official website - Freedomain Radio

v t e Anarcho-capitalism
Origins	Aristotelianism Austrian school of economics Marginalism School of Salamanca Subjective theory of value Objectivism Classical liberalism French Liberal School Homestead principle Labor theory of property Physiocracy Individualist anarchism
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Works	The Market for Liberty (1970) For a New Liberty (1973) The Machinery of Freedom (1973) Defending the Undefendable (1976) The Ethics of Liberty (1982) To Serve and Protect (1998) Democracy: The God That Failed (2001) The Myth of the Rational Voter (2007) The Voluntary City (2002) The Problem of Political Authority (2012)
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