Libertarianism

Self-Ownership

For Lockean libertarians, all rights are property rights rooted in John Locke's principle of self-ownership, or the idea that we own ourselves in the same sense that we may own property (natural resources and/or artifacts). Self-ownership limits what others can do to our selves and our property without our consent. Entitlement to property is based on historical principles or how that property was originally acquired. Lockeans argue that initial ownership of natural resources results from a person mixing his or her labor with that unowned resource. So, if we own our selves, then we have a right to the fruits of our labor. The institution of involuntary slavery, for example, is universally morally wrong because it violates the principle of self-ownership and involuntarily deprives individuals of their natural right to what they produce.

Once natural resources come under initial ownership, entitlement to those natural resources and the subsequently created artifacts may be transferred to others, if and only if the contract is informed and consensual. Once legitimate ownership is established, neither other individuals nor the government may coercively seize that property. Most libertarians reject all governmental policies that coercively redistribute property based on some patterned, or preferred, end state such as merit, need, equality, or utility.

Recent debate concerning the original status of natural resources has spawned a form of libertarianism known as “left libertarianism,” which, in contrast to “right libertarianism,” argues that natural resources are not initially unowned, but owned collectively by society in some egalitarian manner as public property. Therefore, those who want to acquire natural resources must secure consent or reimburse society for their use. Despite scholarly disagreement between left and right, libertarians remain committed to both self-ownership and nonaggression.

Nonaggression

Libertarians argue that nonaggression provides the universal foundation for morality and legality. Unprovoked physical aggression is construed as a violation of property rights via self-ownership. Libertarians follow John Stuart Mill and distinguish between other-regarding acts, which violate the rights of others without their consent, and self-regarding acts, which do not. The inviolable bounds of personal liberty lie within the sphere of self-regarding actions. Self-defense is the only justification for violation of the nonaggression axiom.

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