ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents a sympathetic reconstruction together with a critical evaluation and ultimate rejection of the libertarian argument. It argues that self-ownership cannot be grounded on freedom alone. The book claims that joint production poses a problem for a libertarian theory of ownership, that no rule follows from the ownership of a specific factor of production to the ownership of a specific share of the total product. It explores several attempted justifications for a principle of just appropriation. Criticising accounts of freedom presented by different individual libertarian thinkers, the book suggests that a concept of freedom which may be able to ground libertarian property rights in a non-circular fashion must, pace Nozick, recognise rightful as well as non-rightful action as freedom restricting. The book shows that the resulting market distribution conforms with neither principle of division.
