![]() Save by the permission of the lords of the soil, they can have no room for the soles of their feet. Hence, such can exist on the earth by sufferance only. Supposing the entire habitable globe to be so enclosed, it follows that if the landowners have a valid right to its surface, all who are not landowners, have no right at all to its surface. Observe now the dilemma to which this leads. It argues that this more moderate and defensible version of the NAP still has important libertarian implications, but that a full defense of libertarianism cannot rely upon appeals to nonaggression alone.Ģ9 “f one portion of the earth’s surface may justly become the possession of an individual, and may be held by him for his sole use and benefit, as a thing to which he has an exclusive right, then other portions of the earth’s surface may be so held and eventually the whole of the earth’s surface may be so held and our planet may thus lapse altogether into private hands. The essay concludes by setting forth a version of the NAP that does not suffer from these problems. ![]() Second, the absolutist prohibition on aggression, which libertarians typically endorse and which is necessary to generate strongly libertarian conclusions, is grossly implausible. First, insofar as libertarians employ a moralized understanding of aggression, their principle is really about the protection of property rights rather than the prohibition of aggression. It identifies two problems with existing libertarian appeals to the NAP. This essay critically examines the NAP and the extent to which it can provide support for libertarian political theory. The libertarian “Nonaggression Principle” (NAP) prohibits aggression against the persons or property of others, and it is on this basis that the libertarian opposition to redistributive taxation, legal paternalism, and perhaps even the state itself is thought to rest. But it is often presented as a resting upon a simple, indeed commonsense, moral principle. Libertarianism is a controversial political theory.
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