sb. (a.). [f. LIBERTY + -arian, as in unitarian, etc.]
1. One who holds the doctrine of the freedom of the will, as opposed to that of necessity. Opposed to necessitarian. Also attrib. or adj.
1789. Belsham, Ess., I. i. Where is the difference between the Libertarian … and the Necessarian?
1838. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xxx. (1866), II. 113. When the Libertarian descends to arguments drawn from the fact of the Moral Law.
1882–3. F. L. Patton, in Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2524/1. The libertarian doctrine is now taught by appealing to consciousness.
1886. H. Sidgwick, in Mind, XI. 144. His psychology inevitably precludes him [Plato] from being really Libertarian.
a. 1894. G. J. Romanes, Thoughts Relig. (1895), 129. If libertarians grant causality as appertaining to the will,… they are surrendering their position all along the line.
2. One who approves of or advocates liberty.
1878. Seeley, Stein, III. 355. He is a patriot in the fullest and highest sense of the word, but not so decidedly a libertarian.
1901. F. W. Maitland, in Eng. Hist. Rev., July, 419. A supply of competent editors was wanted [for the Rolls Series]…. In such matters Englishmen are individualists and libertarians. The picture of an editor defending his proof sheets … before an official board of critics is not to our liking.
Hence Libertarianism, the principles or doctrines of libertarians.
1830. W. Taylor, Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry, III. 10, note. The general drift of his [Kant’s] system … is not libertarianism.
1886. H. Sidgwick, in Mind, XI. 144. [This] is to make him [Plato] talk modern Libertarianism in a quite unwarrantable way.
