A Minimalist Theory of Appropriation

The Journal of Ethics 26 (2):319-335 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper offers a conditional defence of a minimalist theory of appropriation. The conclusion of its main argument is that, if people do enjoy a natural right to appropriate unappropriated resources, then that right is best understood as a derivative right that stems from a more fundamental natural right to self-preservation. If this conclusion is correct, then insofar as people have a natural right to appropriation, it is much more limited than it is usually assumed, as the minimalist theory places very stringent restrictions on both the amount of unappropriated resources each person has a right to appropriate and the use they can make of those appropriated resources. The conclusion of my argument can be either used as a premise in a modus tollens argument to be used against natural-right theories of property rights or as a premise in a modus ponens argument in favour of a broadly left-libertarian theory.

Similar books and articles

What counts as original appropriation?Bas van der Vossen - 2009 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 8 (4):355-373.
Imposing Duties and Original Appropriation.Bas van der Vossen - 2015 - Journal of Political Philosophy 23 (1):64-85.
Imposing Duties and Original Appropriation.Bas Vossen - 2014 - Journal of Political Philosophy 22 (2):64-85.
How to Appropriate a Text.Robert Piercey - 2021 - Idealistic Studies 51 (3):169-188.
Minimalist Syntax.Randall Hendrick (ed.) - 2003 - Blackwell.
Does Initial Appropriation Create New Obligations?Jesse Spafford - 2020 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 17 (2).
Locke's Labor Theory of Original Appropriation: Philosophical Significance and Implications.Simeon Wyckliffe Hebert - 1993 - Dissertation, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-01-30

Downloads
384 (#47,421)

6 months
175 (#13,872)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Gabriele Contessa
Carleton University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Anarchy, State, and Utopia.Robert Nozick - 1974 - New York: Basic Books.
A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1969 - Harmondsworth,: Penguin Books. Edited by Ernest Campbell Mossner.
Two treatises of government.John Locke - 1947 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Peter Laslett.
Material Beings.Peter Van Inwagen - 1990 - Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1958 - Philosophical Quarterly 8 (33):379-380.

View all 18 references / Add more references