Self-Ownership and Justice in Acquisition

Abstract

Edward Feser has argued not only that there have been no unjust initial acquisitions, but that there cannot be.1 He reaches this judgment by way of an argument to show that questions of justice do not apply to acquisitions. If this thesis is correct, it blocks the claim that since many current holdings are the result of unjust initial acquisitions, they must be rectified by a scheme of redistributive taxation. Importantly, Feser thinks he can block this claim while not giving up the self-ownership proviso (SOP) that Eric Mack has developed.2 Feser regards Mack’s SOP as “a major contribution to the theory of self-ownership and to libertarian theory in general.”3 Section 2 of this article sketches Robert Nozick’s entitlement theory and Mack’s SOP, both of which Feser accepts. I then construct the argument Feser wishes to block. Section 2 ends with a presentation of Feser’s argument to show that questions of justice do not apply to acquisitions.