Libertarian Entitlement Theory

Entitlement theory holds that the justice of a distribution depends entirely on its history — on whether holdings were justly acquired and justly transferred — rather than on any preferred pattern of outcomes.

Definition

The entitlement theory of justice is a historical, non-patterned account on which a distribution is just if everyone is entitled to what they hold, having acquired it through just acquisition or voluntary transfer (or rectification of past injustice).

Scope

Covers Nozick's three principles of justice in holdings (acquisition, transfer, rectification), the Lockean proviso on original appropriation, the critique of patterned and end-state principles, and 'left-libertarian' variants that combine self-ownership with egalitarian claims on natural resources.

Core questions

• What makes an original appropriation of unowned resources legitimate?
• Why does justice in holdings depend on history rather than pattern?
• What does respecting individual rights imply for redistributive taxation?
• Can self-ownership be combined with an egalitarian claim to natural resources?

Key concepts

• self-ownership
• just acquisition
• just transfer
• rectification
• the Lockean proviso
• the Wilt Chamberlain argument
• left-libertarianism

Key theories

Justice in holdings

Nozick proposes three principles — just acquisition, just transfer, and rectification — and argues that any distribution arising through them is just, so that patterned principles cannot be maintained without continuous interference in people's lives.

The Lockean proviso

Drawing on Locke, Nozick holds that appropriation of unowned goods is legitimate provided 'enough and as good' is left for others, or at least no one is made worse off than under common use.

Left-libertarianism

Otsuka argues that robust self-ownership can be combined with an egalitarian principle governing world-ownership, so that strong individual rights need not entail large material inequalities.

History

The view descends from Locke's labour theory of property and was given its canonical modern statement in Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), itself a libertarian reply to Rawls. Later 'left-libertarians' such as Steiner and Otsuka revised the Lockean proviso to yield more egalitarian conclusions.

Debates

Patterns vs. liberty

Nozick's Wilt Chamberlain argument that maintaining any preferred distributive pattern requires continual interference with liberty, against Rawlsian and egalitarian patterned principles.

How demanding is the proviso?

Whether the Lockean proviso permits only minimal constraints on appropriation, as right-libertarians hold, or supports strong egalitarian claims on natural resources, as left-libertarians argue.

Key figures

• Robert Nozick
• John Locke
• Michael Otsuka
• Hillel Steiner

Seminal works

• nozick1974
• otsuka2003

Frequently asked questions

What is the Wilt Chamberlain argument?

It is Nozick's argument that if people freely pay to watch a basketball star, the resulting unequal distribution is just; preserving any prior preferred pattern would require forbidding such voluntary transfers, which violates liberty.