Self-ownership and world ownership: Against left-libertarianism

Social Philosophy and Policy 27 (1):168-194 (2010)
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Abstract

Left-libertarianism is a version of Lockean libertarianism that combines the idea that each person is the full rightful owner of herself and the idea that each person should have the right to own a roughly equal amount of the world's resources. This essay argues against left-libertarianism. The specific target is an interesting form of left-libertarianism proposed by Michael Otsuka that is especially stringent in its equal world ownership claim. One criticism advanced is that there is more tension than Otsuka acknowledges between private ownership of self and equal ownership of the world. This emerges once one notices that self-ownership should not be conceived merely in a thin, formal way but also as a thicker substantive insistence on wide individual freedom. A second criticism is that in other respects the formal idea of self-ownership that Otsuka and other left-libertarians embrace is an extreme doctrine that merits rejection.

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Author's Profile

Richard J. Arneson
University of California, San Diego

Citations of this work

The deep error of political libertarianism: self-ownership, choice, and what’s really valuable in life.Dan Lowe - 2020 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 23 (6):683-705.
Justice and political authority in left-libertarianism.Fabian Wendt - 2015 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 14 (3):316-339.

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