Posts tagged Nozick

Inalienable Rights: Part I The Basic Argument

What is the inalienable rights theory that descends from the Reformation through the Enlightenment and that answers the classical apologies for slavery and autocracy based on implicit or explicit voluntary contracts?

Why is Non-democratic Government Wrong? Involuntariness or Treating Persons as Things?

Is Democracy Government based only on the Consent of the Governed? Classical liberalism takes the most basic question about a social institution as: “consent or coercion.” Democracy is often characterized as “government based on the consent of the governed” so non-democratic government is then typically condemned as being involuntary and coercive. This common condemnation of [...]

Why was Slavery Wrong? Involuntariness or Treating Persons as Things?

“Involuntariness” is the usual answer. Indeed, classical liberalism takes the most basic framing of a social question as: “consent or coercion?”  In this view, democracy is characterized as government “with the consent of the governed” so slavery and non-democratic government were both condemned for the lack of consent. This common condemnation of slavery on the [...]