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Three Different Ways of Using Force
Saturday, August 23, 2008 2:43 PM

So here's the idea: there are at least three different ways that libertarians generally think of coercive force, and I think they've been harmed by treating them as if they were essentially the same sort of thing. The first kind of coercive "force" is the use of someone else's property without their permission, or in direct defiance of their... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 1 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Liberty

Roderick Long on Property
Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:07 AM

I was reading Roderick Long's article, " Land-Locked: A Critique of Carson on Property Rights ," and came across an argument that left me somewhat skeptical. I've recently become convinced that appropriation needs to be justified on the grounds of being a desirable "game," as Schmidtz argues in his essay, " The Institution of... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Appropriation and Environmentalism

Another Double Standard Between Governments and Individuals?
Friday, June 13, 2008 5:07 PM

[Cross-posted...a while ago...on the parent blog ] So today was my first day at the Foundation for Economic Education, where I'll be interning over the summer, and I've already had some excellent debates; this is going to be a fantastic experience. Everyone seems really passionate and interesting, and I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot from everyone... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Liberty

A First Glance at What Rights Could Be Infringed by Climate Change
Monday, April 28, 2008 3:18 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] Climatic Shifts and the Right to Environmental Conditions The most obvious kind of rights infringement which could be caused by climate change involves damage done directly to individuals and property by environmental phenomena. Easiest to think about are the shifts in “normal” environmental conditions which are... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change

Rights and Entitlements
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:29 AM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] Libertarian conceptions of justice are built around the idea that there are certain things which we may not do to people, because as individuals and ends in themselves, they are not to be used against their will for the benefit of others. These ideas are usually represented through the notion of “rights” that individuals... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights

Intertemporal Pollution, Accountability, and Justice in Appropriation
Wednesday, April 09, 2008 3:09 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] If we are ever able to quantify the effects of pollution, we will still need to establish the degree to which particular contributors can be held accountable for those effects. It is important to recognize that in many cases, polluting acts have happened, and will continue to happen, over a long period of time. The significance... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Opportunity

Is There a Right to Culture?
Thursday, April 03, 2008 3:52 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] Last week I had a conversation with my thesis advisor, Dr. Harry Brighouse, in which we discussed an interesting idea which I think might prove important in one way or another, and which I think is worthy of elaboration here. The idea was that a big part of what people are concerned about in discussing climate change is that... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 2 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Opportunity, Lifestyles

Climate Change, Vanishing Lifestyles, and Children
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 7:56 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So in a previous post , I discussed a case in which rising sea levels, resulting from a warming of the Earth, caused the salinization of a Bangladeshi farmer's land, so that he could no longer grow rice on it in the way to which he was accustomed. I concluded that as the owner of the land, with full property rights, he should... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Opportunity, Lifestyles

Climate Change and Market Definition of Property Rights
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:35 AM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] A fellow named Gregory responded to my post, " Can the Free Market Solve the Problems Posed by Climate Change? " with an argument which I think deserves to be discussed in some depth. Gregory wrote: If the market has not arrived at an efficient means regulating itself (compensating those damaged) then a government... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 2 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Emergent Problems

Climate Change and Getting Out of the Way
Friday, March 21, 2008 7:06 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] Imagine for a moment that you are Abdul, a Bangladeshi rice farmer. You have farmed rice your entire adult life, and you plan to continue into the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, Bangladesh is an extremely low-lying nation; almost all of the country's land lies below 10m above sea level, and your farm is no exception... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 9 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change

Can the Free Market Solve the Problems Posed by Climate Change?
Thursday, March 20, 2008 5:22 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] When confronted by the possibility of climate change, many libertarians default to the position that the free market, with its ability to mobilize the ingenuity of the economy for the satisfaction of the desires of the people, will provide the solutions we desire. I want to discuss this view, because I think it is the result... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 4 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Climate Change, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Economics

Asymmetry Between Positive and Negative Externalities
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:27 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I want to discuss an asymmetry between positive and negative externalities which I think might be important when thinking about how to use the enforcement of justice to determine which actions should be permitted. Sometimes, we let individuals impose costs on others, provided compensation is payed, because their actions produce... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 12 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Economics

Does Intrinsic Value in Nonconscious Objects Create Problems for Property Rights?
Sunday, March 02, 2008 2:51 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So I wrote earlier about the idea of nonconscious objects having intrinsic value, and I was wondering about the implications of what I said for our normal conceptions regarding property rights. Basically, I argued that some objects, like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, have the inherent capacity to inspire significant reactions... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 4 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Appropriation and Environmentalism, Intrinsic Value, Opportunity

Respecting the Rich Victim: Boundary Crossings and Critical Opportunities
Friday, February 29, 2008 6:49 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] I wrote this paper last semester for my Political Philosophy class, and I figured I should probably post it here, since it's relevant to the kinds of things I talk about on this site. Without further ado: ---------------------------- Introduction In Anarchy, State, and Utopia , Robert Nozick sets out to build a framework... Read More...

by Donny with an A | with no comments

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights, Equality

Can Dead People Have Rights?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 5:54 PM

[Cross-posted on the parent blog ] So I've been discussing whether or not future people can have rights, and I've started considering the possibility that they don't. But an interesting parallel occurred to me the other day when I was talking to one of my TA's (not the one from the Glue Man debate). Perhaps we could learn a lot about our relationship... Read More...

by Donny with an A | 4 comment(s)

Filed under: Justice, Property Rights