The Myths of the Self-Ownership Thesis

Abstract

The idea of self-ownership lies close to the heart of libertarianism. The view affirms that each person, no matter their background, ethnicity, gender, or social or economic status has a right to live their own life as they see fit, consistent with the same rights for others. Critics of Nozick, and of libertarianism in general, thus take their task to be simply the undermining of the idea of self-ownership. This chapter argues that a minimal state is compatible with the strong libertarian rights that certain anarcho-capitalist libertarians believe all people have. Nozick considers a left-liberal argument on behalf of the claim that the government should regulate the economy and redistribute wealth in order to produce equal opportunity. Some left liberals claim to find the idea of self-ownership perplexing. For instance, David Sobel argues that the idea of self-ownership is untenable because of what we might call the trivial-incursion problem.