What does Libertarianism Require?
It is possible, and for that matter familiar, to attribute to libertarians a stronger view than that sketched in Gauthier’s exposition of LP. In particular, many and no doubt most libertarians have asserted not only the substance of the preceding, but also a theory about its basis that goes beyond what Gauthier will grant. In their view, each person has ‘an inherent moral status in relation to her fellows’, as Gauthier puts it. The trouble is, though, that ‘In a pure state of nature, in which persons interact non-co-operatively and with no prospect of co-operation, they [that is, the moral claims delineated above] have no place.’[8] But then, why would or should a libertarian have to make the further claim that the rights he asserts also hold in a non-cooperative situation? After all, libertarianism, like any political and moral theory, is a theory about man in the social condition. True, it proclaims the superiority of that state to the nonsocial state. Yet the basis of that claim is
