Academic

Arneson on Lockean Rights

By Lawrence Solum

Richard Arneson has posted The Shape of Lockean Rights: Fairness, Pareto, Moderation, and Consent on the Internet. Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

The Lockean natural rights tradition?including its libertarian branch-- is a work in progress.1

Thirty years after the publication of Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick?s classic work of political theory is still regarded by academic philosophers as the authoritative statement of right-wing libertarian Lockeanism in the Ayn Rand mold.2 Despite the classic status of this great book, its tone is not at all magisterial, but improvisational, quirky, tentative, and exploratory. Its author has more questions than answers. On some central foundational questions he refrains from taking a stand. There is spadework yet to be done on the project of developing the most plausible versions of Lockean and Lockean libertarian views. Prior to doing this work, and articulating the sensible alternatives and what can be said for and against them, we are not yet in a position reasonably to opt for any particular version of Lockean theory or for that matter to decide between the natural rights tradition and rival consequentialisms. This essay aims to explore hard and soft versions of Lockean theory. The exploration aims to persuade the reader to favor the soft versions.

Highly recommended.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on May 26, 2009 (boomark / email).