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Hume’s “Wilt Chamberlain Argument” and taxation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Kenneth Henley
Kenneth Henley*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Florida International University, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami, FL33199, USA
*
*Email: henleyk@fiu.edu
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Abstract

Robert Nozick addresses the idea of egalitarian redistribution in an argument standardly considered original: the “Wilt Chamberlain Argument”. However, this argument (without reference to Wilt Chamberlain) is found in David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, first published in 1751. Placing this argument within a Humean and Hayekian, rather than a Lockean or Kantian, perspective radically changes its import for issues of economic justice. Rather than vindicating the radical individualism of Nozick and other libertarians, applied to our circumstances using Hume's conventionalist and evolutionary account of justice, Hume's Wilt Chamberlain argument vindicates moderate redistribution constrained by the rule of general laws and the goal of fostering innovation and industriousness.

Keywords

HumeNozickHayekpropertytaxationWilt Chamberlainlibertarianism
Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 42 , Issue S1: Hume in Alberta: Selected Papers from the 2012 Hume Conference in Calgary , February 2012 , pp. 148 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

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