Difference between revisions of "The worthless Lockean Fable of Initial Acquisition"
From Critiques Of Libertarianism
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I'm going to fisk John Locke. Not because it is a great way to argue, but because there are so many assumptions and fallacies packed into just a few sentences. | I'm going to fisk John Locke. Not because it is a great way to argue, but because there are so many assumptions and fallacies packed into just a few sentences. | ||
== Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, == | == Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, == | ||
| − | This is a religious belief, | + | This is a religious belief, a particular interpretation of some sacred texts. It has no more force than a king's declaration that he is appointed by god to rule a land. |
== yet every man has a property in his own person: == | == yet every man has a property in his own person: == | ||
| − | Yet another unjustifiable natural rights | + | Yet another unjustifiable natural rights assertion that certainly didn't hold in Locke's era of widespread slavery, monarchy, and patriarchy. Property is a social construct, and no society of his time or ours treated people's bodies as their own property: there were always major differences. Locke does not explain or defend this view in any way: he merely expects us to nod our heads in agreement. |
== this no body has any right to but himself. == | == this no body has any right to but himself. == | ||
| − | Excepting slaves, women, children, servants, employees, lower classes, prisoners, etc. But | + | Excepting slaves, women, children, servants, employees, lower classes, prisoners, etc. But perhaps this was aspirational, what he would like, as opposed to reality. |
== The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. == | == The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. == | ||
With the same exceptions, and the same merely aspirational nature. | With the same exceptions, and the same merely aspirational nature. | ||
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* Making a trail through a forest. | * Making a trail through a forest. | ||
* Burning undergrowth to make a forest better for game. | * Burning undergrowth to make a forest better for game. | ||
| − | * | + | * Clearing a forest by burning it. |
| + | * Clearing a forest by timbering it. | ||
* Grazing a cleared forest. | * Grazing a cleared forest. | ||
* Fencing a cleared forest that is grazed. | * Fencing a cleared forest that is grazed. | ||
