I find this fact to completely destroy most libertarian principles.
How does it do anything of the sort? The most fundamental libertarian principle is simply that one should not use force/aggression/fraud to compel someone to do something against their will[1]. That people should be free from use of oppressive force does not require that they be purely rational.
As for the economic arguments that libertarians often use... understand that consequentalist libertarians like to demonstrate that free market principles usually result in better outcomes for most people, most of the time. I don't know any libertarian or free-market advocate who will contend that there are no pathological edge cases to the free-market / laissez-faire approach. They simply accept that as part of the system and acknowledge the role of private charity to fill gaps.
And to add one more point... while the Austrian School of economics, which is very influential to libertarians, and may sometimes be thought of as almost synonymous with libertarianism, does indeed put a strong emphasis on deductive logic and universal laws, I don't find many (if any) libertarians / austrian economists, who contend that humans are strictly rational, all the time.
How does it do anything of the sort? The most fundamental libertarian principle is simply that one should not use force/aggression/fraud to compel someone to do something against their will[1]. That people should be free from use of oppressive force does not require that they be purely rational.
As for the economic arguments that libertarians often use... understand that consequentalist libertarians like to demonstrate that free market principles usually result in better outcomes for most people, most of the time. I don't know any libertarian or free-market advocate who will contend that there are no pathological edge cases to the free-market / laissez-faire approach. They simply accept that as part of the system and acknowledge the role of private charity to fill gaps.
And to add one more point... while the Austrian School of economics, which is very influential to libertarians, and may sometimes be thought of as almost synonymous with libertarianism, does indeed put a strong emphasis on deductive logic and universal laws, I don't find many (if any) libertarians / austrian economists, who contend that humans are strictly rational, all the time.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle