Contra Matt Zwolinski on Murray Rothbard on Ownership and Property
Contra Matt Zwolinski on Murray Rothbard on Ownership and Property

Summary/Abstract: Murray Rothbard offers a libertarian analysis of ownership and property rights. He predicates this theory on three foundational principles: the homesteading of virgin land; legitimate title transfer thereafter, such as through barter, purchase, sale, lending, borrowing, gambling, or gift-giving; and free association: no one should be compelled to associate with anyone else against his will. Matt Zwolinski erroneously demurs. He confuses ownership with control and is confused about one of the most important distinctions in all of political economic philosophy: that between the normative and the positive. The present paper is an attempt to defend the views of the former against the critique of the latter.

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