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Stefan Basil Molyneux
File:Stefan Molyneux photo.jpgMolyneux in 2014
Born (1966-09-24) 24 September 1966 (age 58)
Athlone, Ireland
Schoolvoluntaryism
Main interestslibertarianism, secular ethics, moral universalism, strong atheism

Stefan Basil Molyneux (/stɛˈfɑːn ˈmɑːlɪnjuː/; born 24 September 1966) is a Canadian philosopher, author, speaker, and host of Freedomain Radio. Molyneux's areas of focus include libertarian political philosophy, voluntaryism based on the strict application of the non-aggression principle, secular ethics, strong atheism, cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), history, non-violent parenting, and familial relationship issues. He has publicly spoken at political and technology conferences, and been a guest on television, radio, and podcasts to discuss his views. He has self-published eight non-fiction books, and his essays have been published on popular libertarian websites including LewRockwell.com, antiwar.com, and Strike The Root. Jeffrey Tucker of the Ludwig von Mises Institute described Molyneux as "one of the single most influential libertarian thinkers of our times".

Biography

Molyneux was born in Ireland, but grew up in England and Africa before settling in Canada.

Although interested in computer programming as a teenager, Molyneux initially pursued acting and playwriting. After attending the Glendon College of York University, where he was a member of Theatre Glendon and the Debating Society, he spent two years at the National Theatre School of Canada graduating in 1990. Molyneux went on to acquire a B.A. in History from McGill University in 1991 and an M.A. in History, focusing on the history of philosophy, from University of Toronto in 1993. His thesis "analyz the political implications of the philosophies of Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke".

In early 1995, Stefan returned to programming, when he and his brother Hugh Molyneux founded Caribou Systems Corporation, which specialized in environmental site management software. He held the position of Chief Technology Officer in the Willowdale, Toronto company until it was sold in 2000.

Molyneux's first fiction book Revolutions, set in late 19th century Russia, was completed in 1991 but not published until 2002 by an American publisher after a decade-long search for one in Canada. In 2002, Molyneux graduated from the Humber School for Writers where he completed a fiction book The God Of Atheists. His play Seduction (adapted from Turgenev's Fathers and Sons) appeared on stage in Toronto. His short film, After, has aired on CBC and WTN.

Molyneux now resides in Missisauga, Ontario. In 2013, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, from which he has recovered. After experiencing delays within the public healthcare system in Canada, Molyneux sought private treatment at The Surgery Center of Oklahoma.

Career

Freedomain Radio

In 2005, Molyneux began a podcast called Freedomain Radio ("FDR"), which became a Top 10 Finalist in the 2007 and 2008 Podcast Awards in the Education category. Molyneux now releases most of his content via his YouTube channel, which as of January 2014 had over 130,000 subscribers and 25 million channel views, contributing to it being called "the largest and most popular philosophy show in the world". Audio versions of FDR content continue to also be published as podcasts.

Shortly after starting the Freedomain Radio podcast, Molyneux opened a website under that name as a place to distribute his self-published books, host podcast archives, and act as a community for FDR listeners. He also conducts weekly call-in shows where listeners can ask questions or discuss personal issues. Molyneux eschews typical advertising revenue, preferring the immediate feedback he gets from direct listener donations, a choice that he believes results in higher quality content.

On the FDR show, Molyneux has interviewed and debated experts on topics relating to education, philosophy, psychology, politics, and economics. Notable guests include Noam Chomsky, Zeitgeist founder Peter Joseph, psychological development and addition specialist Dr. Gabor Maté, developmental psychologist Dr. Alison Gopnik, Harvard economics professor and Cato Institute fellow Jeffrey Miron, and Divorce Corp director Joseph Sorge.

Public appearances

Speaking at The Next Web 2014

Molyneux is a frequent guest speaker at 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's spoken at Liberty Fest NYC in 2011, FreedomFest in Las Vegas in 2012, Libertopia 2013, and PorcFest 2013 in Lancaster, NH. Molyneux was emcee of LibertyFest West held in Odessa, TX on February 11, 2012.

Molyneux has appeared on television, radio, and other podcasts to discuss his viewpoints and popular videos. He has been a commentator on RT television programs Adam vs The Man, The Keiser Report, and Breaking the Set. He's been interviewed by ReasonTV and The Alex Jones Show. Molyneux has been a frequent guest host of the Peter Schiff Show since 2012, and has been both a guest and guest host of The Corbett Report. He has appeared twice as a featured guest on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

In 2014, Molyneux debated drug legalization at Upper Canada College's World Affairs Conference. He also 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.

Philosophical views

Dispute resolution organizations

In 2005, Molyneux's essay The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives was re-published by the libertarian website LewRockwell.com. In it, Molyneux describes his 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.

Universally Preferable Behaviour

In his 2007 book Universally Preferable Behaviour: A Rational Proof for Secular Ethics, Molyneux 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 shown 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. "Universally preferable behaviours", then, are the actions of people that comply with the universal moral statements that are objectively derived in this process and should be considered binding among people.

In 2012, libertarian philosopher David Gordon gave a critical examination of the book in The Mises Review, stating, "is arguments are often preposterously bad". Gordon documented what he sees as fundamental 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 and Gordon later exchanged responses to the points raised in the review but could not come to agreement on some major issues, particularly that of universality.

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 refers to the childhood family as the "FOO", an acronym of "family of origin" (borrowed from academic psychology).

In 2008, the parents of an 18-year-old Freedomain Radio ("FDR") community member took complaints about these views to several media outlets, claiming that Molyneux s the leader of a "therapy cult", after their son abruptly broke off all contact with the family ("deFOOed"). The son called-in to FDR in the weeks prior to ask about his veganism and his intense disgust towards people that eat meat or are cruel to animals. Molyneux quickly suggested that the source of this disgust was that son had grown up around someone in authority that was cruel to animals. The son confirmed this, describing memories of his father being verbally and physically cruel to the family cat, causing him to feel intimidated by the father, and then described his emotional detachment toward his mother and the rest of his family. The following month, the son left a note stating he no longer wanted contact and left home. A representative of the Cult Information Centre described the situation as "a worrying development", noting that cults often cut people off from their families. Molyneux provided evidence to the media that, of the 50,000 regular listeners, only about 20 FDR members had "deFOOed". Molyneux added: "If I advised a wife to leave an abusive husband, there would not be articles about how I am a cult leader."

Bibliography

Non-fiction

  • On Truth: The Tyranny of Illusion (2007)
  • Universally Preferable Behaviour: 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)
  • Against the Gods? A Concise Guide to Atheism and Agnosticism (2010) (Foreword by Peter Boghossian)
  • The Handbook of Human Ownership: A Manual for New Tax Farmers (2011)

Fiction

See also

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. ^ Horsager, David (2012). The Trust Edge: How top leaders gain faster results, deeper relationships, and a stronger bottom line. New York: Free Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-1-4767-1137-9. OCLC 820783989.
  4. ^ Tu Thanh Ha (December 12, 2008). "How a cyberphilosopher convinced followers to cut off family". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  5. ^ Sawers, Paul. "How cryptocurrencies can curb unsustainable growth in government power (interview with Stefan Molyneux)". The Next Web. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  6. ^ "Our Staff > Stefan Molyneux". Casey Research. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. Molyneux, Stefan (February 20, 2007). "Strong Atheism: The Case for Evacuating the Middle Ground". Strike The Root. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  9. ^ Huber, Suzanne (Apr 16, 2014). "Toronto Hosts Canada's First Bitcoin Expo". Techvibes. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  10. ^ Rees, Mark. "Bitcoin's YouTube Missionaries". Bitcoin Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  11. "Articles by Stefan Molyneux". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  12. "Columns by Stefan Molyneux". Strike The Root. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
  13. Kinsella, Stephan (March 12, 2012). "Jeff Tucker on Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"". The Libertarian Standard. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  14. ^ "Author Stefan Molyneux To Russia, with love". The Mississauga News. June 1, 2003. p. 15. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  15. Johnson, Phil (February 23, 1988). "Horrors! Dracula's at Glendon College". Toronto Star. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  16. da Costa, Cathy (February 8, 1988). "World Champions at Glendon". Pro Tem. York University/Glendon College. p. 4. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
  17. ^ Burg, Robert (May 26, 1997). "Their software keeps tabs on site data". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  18. "Freedomain Radio > About". Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  19. Molyneux, Stefan. "Author Resume". Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. Retrieved May 14, 2014.
  20. Molyneux, Stefan (August 8, 2013). "Health Care is Actually Really Cheap!". Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  21. "2007 People's Choice Podcast Awardees". Podcast Awards. Podcast Connect Inc. Archived from the original on September 8, 2007. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  22. "2008 Podcast Awards Winners!". Podcast Awards. Podcast Connect Inc. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  23. ^ "Speakers". Libertopia.org. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  24. ^ Hortex, Alice (April 14, 2014). "The Psychology of Money: Stefan Molyneux at Texas BTC Conference". Cointelegraph. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  25. ^ 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.
  26. Freedomain Radio > Podcasts. Freedomain Radio. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  27. Freedomain Radio > Free Books. Freedomain Radio. Retrieved April 28, 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. "The Biology, Morality and Politics of Addiction - Dr Gabor Maté - The Freedomain Radio Interview". February 24, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  32. ""The Philosophical Baby" - Dr Alison Gopnik Interviewed on Freedomain Radio". December 8, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  33. "Jeffrey A. Miron discusses the war on drugs on Freedomain Radio w/ Stefan Basil Molyneux". Cato Institute. February 23, 2014. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
  34. "Director Joseph Sorge Interviewed by Stefan Molyneux". Divorce Corp. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  35. "New Hampshire Liberty Forum – Keynote Speaker: Stefan Molyneux from Freedomain Radio". Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  36. Tobin, Christina. "Free & Equal to Co-Host NYC Liberty Fest event". press release. Free & Equal. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  37. "Stefan Molyneux at PorcFestX". PorcFest. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  38. Corrales, John (February 11, 2012). "LibertyFest West 2012 promotes rights of individuals". The Odessa American. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  39. "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)
  40. Keiser, Max. "On the Edge with Stefan Molyneux". The Keiser Report. RT. Retrieved 8 August 2011. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  41. Martin, Abby (February 19, 2013). "Bradley Manning, Keystone pipeline, and anarchism". Breaking the Set. RT. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  42. Jones, Alex. "Monday 7-11-2011 – The Alex Jones Show with Stefan Molyneux". The Alex Jones Show. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  43. "The Peter Schiff Show! Hosted by Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio". Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  44. Kinsella, Stephan. "KOL106 Peter Schiff Show: Obamacare, Patent Reform". StephanKinsella.com. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  45. "Interview 475 – Curing Statism with Stefan Molyneux". The Corbett Report. James Corbett. March 7, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  46. "Corbett Report Radio 132 with Guest Host Stefan Molyneux". The Corbett Report. James Corbett. May 15, 2012. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  47. "JRE #396 – Stefan Molyneux". Joe Rogan Experience. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  48. "JRE #436 – Stefan Molyneux". Joe Rogan Experience. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  49. Kwok, Winston (February 7, 2014). "World Affairs Conference tackles big issues". UCC Newsfeed. Upper Canada College. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  50. "The Cryptocurrency Revolution". The Next Web. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  51. Molyneux, Stefan (December 29, 2004). "The Stateless Society: An Examination of Alternatives". Freedomain Blog. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
  52. Molyneux, Stefan (October 24, 2005). "The Stateless Society An Examination of Alternatives". LewRockwell.com. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  53. Awuku, Christopher (February 11, 2007). "DRO' Protection: An Example of How It Could Work". Strike The Root. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  54. Molyneux, Stefan (June 25, 2008). Practical Anarchy. The Freedomain Library.
  55. Molyneux, Stefan (October 2007). Universally Preferable Behaviour: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics. The Freedomain Library.
  56. ^ Gordon, David (4 July 2012). "The Molyneux Problem". Ludwig von Mises Institute – The Mises Review. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  57. Molyneux, Stefan (7 July 2012). "A Response to David Gordon's Review "The Molyneux Problem"". Freedomain Radio. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  58. Gordon, David (11 July 2012). "Mr. Molyneux Responds". Ludwig von Mises Institute – Mises.org Daily. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  59. Molyneux, Stefan (April 9, 2005). "Are People Just Stupid?". Freedomain Blog. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  60. Whipple, Tom (January 10, 2009). "The mother and son torn apart by web 'cult' that destroys families". The Times. London, England. pp. 34, 35. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  61. Hilpern, Kate (15 November 2008). "You will never see me again". The Guardian. Retrieved January 7, 2009.
  62. Powell, Robin (December 29, 2008). "Website Led Teen To Quit Family". SkyNews. Retrieved May 16, 2014.

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