The Libertarian Critique of the Lockean Proviso Cover Image

Libertariańska krytyka locke’owskiego proviso
The Libertarian Critique of the Lockean Proviso

Author(s): Cezary Błaszczyk
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Civil Law, Law on Economics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Locke; Proviso; a theory of property; libertarianis; teoria własności; libertarianizm

Summary/Abstract: John Locke’s theory of property is one of the most influential. It has had (at least an indirect) impact on many political and legal doctrines: from liberalism and libertarianism to communitarianism and socialism. So-called „moderate” libertarians, such as Robert Nozick, accepted Locke’s view on private property and its origins with only a slight modification. They claimed that Lockean proviso is valid only if it is softened. Moderate libertarian proviso reads that those who appropriate shall leave as good as enough goods for the others (not as many as good as John Locke suggested). Radical libertarians (such as Murray Newton Rothbard or Hans Herman Hoppe) on the other hand completely rejected the proviso. They also adopted Lockean theory of property and believed that private property derives from self-ownership; however, since absolute property- and self-ownership are perceived by them as the only possible and moral solutions and since goods in the state of nature are owned by nobody, no one has a rightful claim to any appropriated goods. Therefore propertarian libertarian diverse reception of Lockean theory of property might serve as a criterion for the classification of streams of libertarian thought.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 66
  • Page Range: 17-39
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish