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Single Idea 18641

[from 'Anarchy,State, and Utopia' by Robert Nozick, in 25. Social Practice / A. Freedoms / 4. Free market ]

Full Idea

If we assume that everyone is entitled to the goods they currently possess (their 'holdings'), then a just distribution is simply whatever distribution results from people's free exchanges.

Gist of Idea

If people hold things legitimately, just distribution is simply the result of free exchanges

Source

report of Robert Nozick (Anarchy,State, and Utopia [1974]) by Will Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) 4.1.b

Book Reference

Kymlicka,Will: 'Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn)' [OUP 1992], p.96


A Reaction

If people's current 'legitimate' holdings are hugely unequal, it seems very unlikely that the ensuing exchanges will be 'free' in the way that Nozick envisages.