Ownership and Justice: Volume 27, Part 1

The essays in this volume address questions of property ownership and principles of justice.

Ellen Frankel Paul (Edited by), Fred D. Miller, Jr (Edited by), Jeffrey Paul (Edited by)

9780521175432, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 May 2010

328 pages
23 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

The institution of private property lies at the heart of contemporary Western societies. However, what are the limits of property ownership? Do principles of justice require some measure of governmental redistribution of property in order to relieve poverty or to promote greater equality among citizens? And what do principles of justice have to say about individuals' ownership of their own talents and the products of their labor, and about the initial acquisition of land and natural resources? The essays in this volume, written by eleven prominent political and moral philosophers, address these questions and explore related issues. A number of them consider the theoretical foundations of property ownership, asking how the rights of individuals to acquire property can be justified, and how extensive these rights are. Some focus on the concept of self-ownership, discussing how the individual's right to control their own mind, body and actions relates to their right to gain control over extrapersonal objects and resources. Others look at connections between property ownership and various values, including democratic political participation and equality of wealth and opportunity.

1. The right to private property: a justification John Kekes
2. Classical natural law theory, property rights, and taxation Edward Feser
3. The natural right of property Eric Mack
4. Property and justice David Schmidtz
5. Property and rights Jan Narveson
6. Embodiment and self-ownership Daniel C. Russell
7. Self-ownership and world ownership: against left-liberalism Richard J. Arneson
8. The uneasy relationship between democracy and capital Thomas Christiano
9. Real-world luck egalitarianism George Sher
10. Coercion, ownership, and the redistributive state: justificatory liberalism's classical tilt Gerald Gaus
11. Adam Smith and the great mind fallacy James R. Otteson.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]