Abstract:
The notions of Self-Ownership and Egalitarianism, so G.A.Cohen and Robert Nozick, are mutually incompatible.
A state can redistribute money to its weaker citizens via taxation.
So the incompatibility issue hinges on the question if taxation infringes the rights of a self-owned person or in Nozick�s words, if taxation is on par with forced labour.
In this essay I will first briefly outline, why Self-Ownership and Egalitarianism have a compelling intuitive force.
Then by analyzing and refusing three widely known objections against the �taxation is forced labour�-thesis, I demonstrate that the incompatibility still remains.
In the last section I will argue that the upshot for an account of distributive justice should be the denial of Egalitarianism in favour of a libertarian view, thereby taking a Nozickian stand.
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Selfownership.doc