ABSTRACT
Contemporary thinking about justice has been dominated by the debate between classical liberals, often called libertarians, and welfare liberals, often called liberals. The libertarians base their theory of justice on traditional ideals of liberty, emphasizing its negative quality; to be free is to be free from coercion, especially the coercion of government, whose role is primarily to protect our liberty. Libertarians trace their view back to the British liberals, Thomas Hobbes (reading 3), John Locke, and John Stuart Mill (reading 6), who believed that the state should protect citizens from violence (internal and external), but ought not invade their privacy or property. Justice is based on an inalienable right to be free from coercion. We examine this tradition in our opening section (II.A), studying the work of such libertarians as John Hospers, Robert Nozick, and Jan Narveson, as well as their critics.
