ABSTRACT
Libertarianism is a right-based political morality. Its argument proceeds from a set of moral rights grounded on liberty to the justification of the non-interventive state and the market, and the rejection of redistributive taxation. This chapter presents a libertarian conception of property, that is, a right, grounded on liberty, that implies all the market freedoms of control and entitlements of income. The Entitlement Theory of holdings (ET) specifies the conditions under which a person is entitled to things in Robert Nozick's possession. In order to clarify the character of ET and to substantiate its superiority in comparison to rival theories of justice, Nozick points out two features it possesses in contrast to other theories. The first is that ET is an historical principle of justice rather than a current time-slice principle. The second contrasting feature of ET is that it is unpatterned, that it does not follow any a priori pattern. The chapter also presents an overview of this book.
