David Friedman on Governments, Legal Systems, and Fictional Worlds
In this episode I talk with the great economist and legal theorist David Friedman. Friedman is perhaps best known for his advocacy of anarcho-capitalism, but he has made contributions in many areas of law and economics. In this episode we talk primarily about his recent book of comparative legal scholarship, Legal Systems Very Different From Ours (link https://www.amazon.com/Legal-Systems-Very-Different-Ours/dp/1793386722). It is one of my favorite books, and a core inspiration for this blog and podcast.
Friedman wanted to end our conversation talking about his science fiction and fantasy writing, so I think it is fair to describe him as a kind of intellectual wizard with three main powers, as I see it. First, he has Chicago price theory in his blood and thus has great intuitions for describing the incentive structures and equilibrium conditions of different institutional arrangements. Second, he is a devotee of history and science fiction, so has a well trained mind for constructing and reconstructing whole worlds, real or imagined. And third, he exudes a joyful kind of intellectual humility. Both in his normative and his descriptive work, he goes out of his way to explain what he sees as the best alternative theories to his own. He’s always revising his ideas, which he seems to hold very loosely.David Friedman on Governments, Legal Systems, and Fictional Worlds