Single Idea 18646

[catalogued under 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 4. Property rights]

Full Idea

How did these natural resources, which were not initially owned by anyone, come to be part of someone's private property? ...The fact that the initial acquisition often involved force means there is no moral objection to redistributing existing wealth.

Gist of Idea

How did the private property get started? If violence was involved, we can redistribute it

Source

comment on Robert Nozick (Anarchy,State, and Utopia [1974]) by Will Kymlicka - Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) 4.2.b

Book Reference

Kymlicka,Will: 'Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn)' [OUP 1992], p.108


A Reaction

[He cites G.A. Cphen 1988 for the second point] Put like this, Nozick's theory just looks like the sort of propaganda which is typically put out by the winners. Is there an implicit threat of violent resistance in his advocacy of individual rights?

Related Idea

Idea 18647 If property is only initially acquired by denying the rights of others, Nozick can't get started [Kymlicka on Nozick]