How Property and Self-Ownership May Conflict

Justin D. Keith

While not every libertarian agrees that self-ownership should be an axiom, most libertarians maintain that there should be a moral ought which translates roughly to "people avoid interference with the agency of others except in rare cases."

The Terms

1. The term distinct agent means a uniquely identifiable entity which operates under its own motivations. While I deny free will exists, I believe that reasons for action / ends are encoded somewhere in the material universe. A distinct agent is a collection of these motivations and the wiring for action - it is a motivation actualizing machine.
2. The term self-ownership means self-possession, self-control, or agency. It is the descriptive, not the normative form of the common term, that is that one can control himself or herself, not that one necessarily ought to.
3. The term right of self-ownership means the normative form of the common term; the moral ought to avoid interference with the agency of other distinct entities.
4. The term natural opportunities contains the concepts of matter, location, and energy. It refers to all things which no distinct agent produced, even if a distinct agent made them accessible or discovered them. Opportunity here means "a favorable juncture of circumstances"; a situation or resource allowing desires to be satisfied.
5. The term right means the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people
6. Rivalrous and exclusive means that one must necessarily exclude others from using or accessing something for the original agent to make use of it. Things can be rivalrous even if no agent is actively making use of them at the time, as their nature permits only one or a handful of simultaneous users.
7. Property means the right of a distinct agent to use or exclude others from use of a natural or man-made opportunity. Property rights are considered to have no expiration for at least the life of the claimant and may be sold or gifted to others.

The Assertion

I assert that absolute and unbounded exclusive property rights are not necessarily compatible with continued self-ownership or the rights to continued self-ownership of more than one distinct agent. This applies even if the unbounded exclusive property rights do not extend to opportunities currently in use by others (for instance, the bodies of others) so long as other agents will need those opportunities to survive.

This assertion can be shown with math, physics, and logic though the physics I'm using are Newtonian.

The Logic

1. There is a finite amount of rivalrous natural opportunity at any given time which is accessible to and usable by any given distinct agent.
2. Continued self-ownership of a distinct agent requires exclusive access to a certain amount of rivalrous natural opportunity because
   1. The self is composed of matter which is rivalrous - one unit of matter cannot occupy two distinct agents simultaneously.
   2. The self requires the use of energy to perform action, to think, to change states, to displace entropy (prevent death) - use of energy is rivalrous between distinct agents. Inasmuch as a distinct agent is a motivation actualizing machine, it requires energy because energy is a prerequisite of actualization.
   3. The self requires the use of location because the use of matter requires the use of location. The use of location is rivalrous - more than one unit of matter cannot occupy the same location at the same time.
   4. Due to the consumable nature of some natural opportunities required to maintain self, a distinct agent must constantly have access to and appropriate enough natural opportunity not currently in use by them to maintain existence.
   5. The existence of the self is a prerequisite for self ownership, otherwise the state of ownership has no referent.
   6. Therefore, the use and continuous use of rivalrous matter (and location) and energy is required for self-ownership. That is to say, the amount of of these natural opportunities which must remain accessible to a distinct agent for future use for it to have self-ownership at any given time is greater than zero.
3. To have a property right means that no one can access or use that property without the owner's permission. In the case that the property is a natural opportunity, that natural opportunity cannot be accessed or used without the owner's permission.
4. If one has to get permission from another distinct agent to do or use something, that doing or using something is not an exclusive right.
   1. By negation: To "have" an exclusive right to do or use something requires that you do not have to get permission from another distinct agent.
5. To have an exclusive right to do or use something requires that no other distinct agent may justifiably stop you from doing or using that something without your voluntary agreement. Exclusive rights are rivalrous.
6. All prerequisites of doing or using something must be rights for the doing or using of something to be a right.
   1. If anything which is a prerequisite of doing or using something is a privilege, then the doing or using of that something is necessarily a privilege.
7. Ought implies can - if something is impossible to respect, to perform, or refrain from performing, it cannot be a right.

Summary

If

1. a distinct agent has an unbounded exclusive right to an unlimited amount of natural opportunity, even if that unbounded right is restricted to natural opportunities not currently in use by others
2. and access to and use of rivalrous natural opportunity even not in current use is necessary for continued existence of the self (2a-2d)
3. and the continued existence of the self is a prerequisite for self-ownership (2e)
4. and any prerequisite of a right cannot be a privilege (5)
5. and property rights in something requires the voluntary agreement of a distinct agent before another distinct agent may justifiably use or access something (3,4)
6. and accessible, usable natural opportunities are finite (1)
7. and some if not all of the accessible, usable natural opportunities required to continuously maintain self are rivalrous, that is the more one has an exclusive right to, the less others have an exclusive right to

Then