REASON Profile: Tibor R. Machan

More than most people in the libertarian movement, thirty-three year old REASON associate editor and co-owner Tibor Machan can appreciate what it means to live under Communism. As a child growing up in Hungary, he was fully exposed to socialist indoctrination, even joining his school's chapter of Young Pioneers. However, by the time he reached his teens, it was obvious that the indoctrination hadn't taken and his escape to Germany was arranged, from whence he came to the United States.

After leaving high school Dr. Machan joined the USAF as an Air Policeman, first reading Ayn Rand's novels while standing guard duty. Upon his discharge he entered Claremont Men's College, receiving his B.A. in philosophy in 1965. He received his M.A. in 1966 from New York University and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971.

His professional activities have included being a commentator on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles from 1968-70 and writing a column for the Santa Ana REGISTER from 1966-70. He was assistant professor of philosophy at California State College in Bakersfield (1970-72) and is currently an assistant professor at State University College in Fredonia, New York. Dr. Machan's research interests include political theory, philosophy of the social sciences, educational theory and metaethics, and he has published in such journals as THE PERSONALIST and THE JOURNAL OF HUMAN RELATIONS. His article on "Freedom and Capitalism" was published in the Harper & Row anthology, OUTSIDE LOOKING IN and he has edited 20th CENTURY INDIVIDUALIST THOUGHT to be published by Nelson-Hall in 1973.

Dr. Machan's leisure interests include a passion for the color orange, long drives, music from ragtime to rock, Fred Astaire and Johnny Carson, Liszt, and Toulous-Lautrec. Currently single (he was married to REASON copy editor Marilynn Walther for five years), he plans to remarry soon.

From being a "Pioneer" in his native Budapest, Tibor Machan has moved to being an intellectual pioneer in Libertarianism.