Peter Vallentyne > Quotes

“The claimed legitimizing devices of political consent or personal labour served only to obscure the unjustifiable seizure of land from the common by the powerful. Other commoners at the time of those seizures had not consented to them, and even if they had done so, their consent could not bind later generations.”
― Peter Vallentyne, The Origins of Left-Libertarianism: An Anthology of Historical Writings

“There is no precept of the natural law commanding men to appropriate all things in such a way that each person is assigned his own separate portion...it nonetheless left it up to men's judgement whether to make all things proper or only certain ones, and whether to possess some things in common while leaving the rest available to all, yet in such a way that no one could claim them for himself alone. And so the law of nature is understood to approve all agreements men have introduced concerning things, provided they do not involve a contradiction or disturb society.”
― Peter Vallentyne, The Origins of Left-Libertarianism: An Anthology of Historical Writings

“On this, both right-libertarians and left-libertarians agree...the doctrine of self-ownership. Each person has exclusive ownership of herself [or himself] and nobody has any property rights in another person.”
― Peter Vallentyne, The Origins of Left-Libertarianism: An Anthology of Historical Writings