Jan Lester - "A Pre-Propertarian Theory of Libertarian Liberty"

Dr Jan Lester is the author of *Escape from Leviathan:* *Liberty**, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled* (2000) and *The Dictionary of Anti-Politics* (forthcoming). He has also written two philosophical dramatic dialogues: *The Naked Politician* and *The Philosophical Genie* (available on request; performances encouraged).

The liberty that libertarians promote is not inherently about self-ownership and private property. A pre-propertarian theory of libertarian liberty is possible. And from this theory, self-ownership and private property are derivable as contingently normal but not inevitable. This pre-propertarian theory of liberty explains how libertarians are not “just propertarians without a real interest in liberty”. It also enables solutions to various traditional paradoxes and novel problem cases that arise with private-property libertarianism.