Karl Widerquist
Biographic Data
| ID | 222491 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karl Widerquist |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karl |
| FAMILY NAME | Widerquist |
| SIGNATURE | WIDERQUIST K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University in Qatar |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Material conditions and human freedom: David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)
The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory
This book examines the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day to debunk three widely accepted false beliefs about the private property system: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that there is something “natural” about the private property system. That i…
The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory
Examines the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day Traces the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day showing that it was not the product of 'appropriation' and 'voluntary trade' but of a long history of violent aggression Reviews the long history of contradictory explanations why inequality is supposedly natural and inevitable or an …
Why private property?”
The Pursuit of Accord: Toward a Theory of Justice with a Second-Best Approach to the Insider-Outsider Problem
La plupart des théories de la justice offrent des approches en première intention au problème de l’ insider et de l’ outsider en supposant que les humains peuvent créer une structure sociale de base que personne ne pourrait raisonnablement rejeter. Cet article soutient qu’il n’existe pas de telles solutions en première intention et que la croyance en de telles solutions désavantage systématiquement les personnes les moins puissantes sur les plans…
The pursuit of accord: Toward a theory of justice with a second-best approach to the insider-outsider problem
Why Private Property?”
Le texte suivant est la transcription de la table ronde qui a clôturé la conférence internationale « Pourquoi la propriété privée ? » (organisée à l’Université libre de Bruxelles en juin 2018). Philippe Van Parijs a accepté d’animer la discussion et d’organiser la confrontation des thèses de Jean-Fabien Spitz, Hillel Steiner et Karl Widerquist sur la propriété privée. La discussion est divisée en trois moments principaux. Tout d’abord, les orateu…
Nasty and Brutish? an Empirical Assessment of the Violence Hypothesis
This chapter empirically investigates two hypotheses often used to support the claim that virtually everyone is better off in state society than they could reasonably expect to be in any stateless environment. “The strong violence hypothesis” is the claim that violence in stateless societies is necessarily intolerable. “The weak violence hypothesis” is the claim that violence in stateless societies tends to be higher than in state society. Sectio…
Modern Political Philosophy and Prehistoric Anthropology: Some Preliminary Issues
Because this book involves two very different academic disciplines, political philosophy and anthropology, some background about the relevant topics in each one is helpful. In this chapter, Section 1 introduces the relevant political theory. Section 2 discusses some of the anthropological methods and conceptual issues involved in the examination of the evidence relevant to these philosophical arguments. Section 3 discusses how the state and the s…
Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy
This book shows how—despite significant equivocation—the most influential justifications of government and of private property rely on the seldom-questioned empirical premise that this book calls, “the Hobbesian Hypothesis.” That is, everyone in a society with a government and/or a private property rights system is better off than anyone could be in a society without those institutions. In other words, the “Lockean Proviso” is fulfilled—whether b…
The Hobbesian Hypothesis in Anthropology
This chapter explores how Hobbesian ideas affected the development of anthropology and how “the Hobbesian hypotheses” (the claim that everyone is better off in a state society with a private property system than they could reasonably expect to be in any society without either of those institutions) has appeared in the history of anthropological thought and in popular anthropology. Although many of the issues discussed remain the subject of debate…
Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies
This article argues the following points. The Hobbesian hypothesis, which we define as the claim that all people are better off under state authority than they would be outside of it, is an empirical claim about all stateless societies. It is an essential premise in most contractarian justifications of government sovereignty. Many small- scale societies are stateless. Anthropological evidence from them provides sufficient reason to doubt the trut…
The Evolution of Equality: Rethinking Variability and Egalitarianism Among Modern Forager Societies
Using hunter-gatherer societies as a focus, we argue for a heuristic continuum of egalitarian social systems ranging between relatively strong and weak forms. Weak egalitarianism is characterized by an absence of real political hierarchy, and limited differences between individuals in terms of rank, status, wealth, or power, while strongly egalitarian societies are characterized by these with some combination of powerful sharing and leveling norm…
Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom As the Power to Say No
Freedom is commonly understood in two different ways: the absence of restriction or interference (scalar freedom) and the absence of slavery or oppression (status freedom). Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income argues that philosophers have focused too much on scalar freedom and proposes a theory of status freedom as effective control self-ownership—simply, freedom as the power to say no. This exciting new volume argues for and explore…
Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the World
This timely book examines how the "Alaska model" can be adapted for use elsewhere, examining issues of implementation and showing that this model can be employed even in resource-poor areas in the ind
How the Sufficiency Minimum Becomes a Social Maximum
This article argues that, under likely empirical conditions, sufficientarianism leads not to an easily achievable duty to maintain a social minimum but to the onerous duty of maintaining a social maximum at the sufficiency level. This happens because sufficientarians ask us to give no weight at all to small benefits for people above the sufficiency level if the alternative is to relieve the suffering of people below it. If we apply this judgment …
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State Charles Murray Washington, DC, AEI Press, 2006, 230 pp., $20.00 hardcover ISBN 0-8447-4223-6 Charles Murray is not known as a friend of the poor. H
Ken Binmore, Natural Justice (Oxford: (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. xii + 207
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A dilemma for libertarianism
Many libertarians make a moral argument that liberty requires the freedom to exercise strong property rights. From this, they argue that no more than a minimal state with sharply limited powers of taxation can be justified. A larger state would supposedly interfere with private property rights and thereby reduce liberty. In response, this article shows how natural rights to property do not entail any particular vision of the state. It demonstrate…
The Physical Basis of Voluntary Trade
Who Exploits who
This whole program is voluntary ... The men don't have to ... if they don't want to. But we need you to starve them to death if they don't (Joseph Heller, Catch-22). This article considers two concepts put forward by van Donselaar in a case against basic income: ‘the abuse of rights’, i.e. receiving income from an asset one has no interest in working with; and ‘Donselaarian exploitation’, i.e. A exploits B if A is better off and B worse off than …
The basic income guarantee and social economics
This article introduces the Review of Social Economy symposium on the basic income guarantee (BIG). It argues that there are several ways in which the BIG is consistent with social economics. First, the BIG is an attempt to meet the minimum material needs of US citizens and contribute to the common good. Second, important arguments for a BIG move beyond the positive-normative dichotomy. Finally, the BIG would help individuals function as social c…
Perspectives on the Guaranteed Income, Part I
The article focuses on the concept of "Guaranteed Income." The idea of a guaranteed income has been around in one form or another since Thomas Paine proposed a version of it in 1796. Except for a brief period in the 1960s and 1970s, it has not been a significant part of the public debate in the United States. A guaranteed income is a policy that unconditionally guarantees that no one's income falls below a certain level. There are many ways to ac…
Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income
This paper argues that a guaranteed income is not only consistent with the principle of reciprocity but is required for reciprocity. This conclusion follows from a three-part argument. First, if a guaranteed income is in place, all individuals have the same opportunity to live without working. Therefore, those who choose not to work do not take advantage of a privilege that is unavailable to everyone else. Second, in the absence of an uncondition…
Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income
This paper argues that a guaranteed income is not only consistent with the principle of reciprocity but is required for reciprocity. This conclusion follows from a three-part argument. First, if a guaranteed income is in place, all individuals have the same opportunity to live without working. Therefore, those who choose not to work do not take advantage of a privilege that is unavailable to everyone else. Second, in the absence of an uncondition…
A dilemma for libertarianism
Many libertarians make a moral argument that liberty requires the freedom to exercise strong property rights. From this, they argue that no more than a minimal state with sharply limited powers of taxation can be justified. A larger state would supposedly interfere with private property rights and thereby reduce liberty. In response, this article shows how natural rights to property do not entail any particular vision of the state. It demonstrate…
How the Sufficiency Minimum Becomes a Social Maximum
This article argues that, under likely empirical conditions, sufficientarianism leads not to an easily achievable duty to maintain a social minimum but to the onerous duty of maintaining a social maximum at the sufficiency level. This happens because sufficientarians ask us to give no weight at all to small benefits for people above the sufficiency level if the alternative is to relieve the suffering of people below it. If we apply this judgment …
Who Exploits who
This whole program is voluntary ... The men don't have to ... if they don't want to. But we need you to starve them to death if they don't (Joseph Heller, Catch-22). This article considers two concepts put forward by van Donselaar in a case against basic income: ‘the abuse of rights’, i.e. receiving income from an asset one has no interest in working with; and ‘Donselaarian exploitation’, i.e. A exploits B if A is better off and B worse off than …
The basic income guarantee and social economics
This article introduces the Review of Social Economy symposium on the basic income guarantee (BIG). It argues that there are several ways in which the BIG is consistent with social economics. First, the BIG is an attempt to meet the minimum material needs of US citizens and contribute to the common good. Second, important arguments for a BIG move beyond the positive-normative dichotomy. Finally, the BIG would help individuals function as social c…
Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies
This article argues the following points. The Hobbesian hypothesis, which we define as the claim that all people are better off under state authority than they would be outside of it, is an empirical claim about all stateless societies. It is an essential premise in most contractarian justifications of government sovereignty. Many small- scale societies are stateless. Anthropological evidence from them provides sufficient reason to doubt the trut…
The Evolution of Equality: Rethinking Variability and Egalitarianism Among Modern Forager Societies
Using hunter-gatherer societies as a focus, we argue for a heuristic continuum of egalitarian social systems ranging between relatively strong and weak forms. Weak egalitarianism is characterized by an absence of real political hierarchy, and limited differences between individuals in terms of rank, status, wealth, or power, while strongly egalitarian societies are characterized by these with some combination of powerful sharing and leveling norm…
The Physical Basis of Voluntary Trade
Material conditions and human freedom: David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State Charles Murray Washington, DC, AEI Press, 2006, 230 pp., $20.00 hardcover ISBN 0-8447-4223-6 Charles Murray is not known as a friend of the poor. H
Reciprocity and the Guaranteed Income
This paper argues that a guaranteed income is not only consistent with the principle of reciprocity but is required for reciprocity. This conclusion follows from a three-part argument. First, if a guaranteed income is in place, all individuals have the same opportunity to live without working. Therefore, those who choose not to work do not take advantage of a privilege that is unavailable to everyone else. Second, in the absence of an uncondition…
Perspectives on the Guaranteed Income, Part I
The article focuses on the concept of "Guaranteed Income." The idea of a guaranteed income has been around in one form or another since Thomas Paine proposed a version of it in 1796. Except for a brief period in the 1960s and 1970s, it has not been a significant part of the public debate in the United States. A guaranteed income is a policy that unconditionally guarantees that no one's income falls below a certain level. There are many ways to ac…
The basic income guarantee and social economics
This article introduces the Review of Social Economy symposium on the basic income guarantee (BIG). It argues that there are several ways in which the BIG is consistent with social economics. First, the BIG is an attempt to meet the minimum material needs of US citizens and contribute to the common good. Second, important arguments for a BIG move beyond the positive-normative dichotomy. Finally, the BIG would help individuals function as social c…
Who Exploits who
This whole program is voluntary ... The men don't have to ... if they don't want to. But we need you to starve them to death if they don't (Joseph Heller, Catch-22). This article considers two concepts put forward by van Donselaar in a case against basic income: ‘the abuse of rights’, i.e. receiving income from an asset one has no interest in working with; and ‘Donselaarian exploitation’, i.e. A exploits B if A is better off and B worse off than …
The Physical Basis of Voluntary Trade
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State
In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State Charles Murray Washington, DC, AEI Press, 2006, 230 pp., $20.00 hardcover ISBN 0-8447-4223-6 Charles Murray is not known as a friend of the poor. H
Ken Binmore, Natural Justice (Oxford: (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. xii + 207
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
A dilemma for libertarianism
Many libertarians make a moral argument that liberty requires the freedom to exercise strong property rights. From this, they argue that no more than a minimal state with sharply limited powers of taxation can be justified. A larger state would supposedly interfere with private property rights and thereby reduce liberty. In response, this article shows how natural rights to property do not entail any particular vision of the state. It demonstrate…
How the Sufficiency Minimum Becomes a Social Maximum
This article argues that, under likely empirical conditions, sufficientarianism leads not to an easily achievable duty to maintain a social minimum but to the onerous duty of maintaining a social maximum at the sufficiency level. This happens because sufficientarians ask us to give no weight at all to small benefits for people above the sufficiency level if the alternative is to relieve the suffering of people below it. If we apply this judgment …
Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the World
This timely book examines how the "Alaska model" can be adapted for use elsewhere, examining issues of implementation and showing that this model can be employed even in resource-poor areas in the ind
Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom As the Power to Say No
Freedom is commonly understood in two different ways: the absence of restriction or interference (scalar freedom) and the absence of slavery or oppression (status freedom). Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income argues that philosophers have focused too much on scalar freedom and proposes a theory of status freedom as effective control self-ownership—simply, freedom as the power to say no. This exciting new volume argues for and explore…
Myths about the State of Nature and the Reality of Stateless Societies
This article argues the following points. The Hobbesian hypothesis, which we define as the claim that all people are better off under state authority than they would be outside of it, is an empirical claim about all stateless societies. It is an essential premise in most contractarian justifications of government sovereignty. Many small- scale societies are stateless. Anthropological evidence from them provides sufficient reason to doubt the trut…
The Evolution of Equality: Rethinking Variability and Egalitarianism Among Modern Forager Societies
Using hunter-gatherer societies as a focus, we argue for a heuristic continuum of egalitarian social systems ranging between relatively strong and weak forms. Weak egalitarianism is characterized by an absence of real political hierarchy, and limited differences between individuals in terms of rank, status, wealth, or power, while strongly egalitarian societies are characterized by these with some combination of powerful sharing and leveling norm…
Nasty and Brutish? an Empirical Assessment of the Violence Hypothesis
This chapter empirically investigates two hypotheses often used to support the claim that virtually everyone is better off in state society than they could reasonably expect to be in any stateless environment. “The strong violence hypothesis” is the claim that violence in stateless societies is necessarily intolerable. “The weak violence hypothesis” is the claim that violence in stateless societies tends to be higher than in state society. Sectio…
Modern Political Philosophy and Prehistoric Anthropology: Some Preliminary Issues
Because this book involves two very different academic disciplines, political philosophy and anthropology, some background about the relevant topics in each one is helpful. In this chapter, Section 1 introduces the relevant political theory. Section 2 discusses some of the anthropological methods and conceptual issues involved in the examination of the evidence relevant to these philosophical arguments. Section 3 discusses how the state and the s…
Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy
This book shows how—despite significant equivocation—the most influential justifications of government and of private property rely on the seldom-questioned empirical premise that this book calls, “the Hobbesian Hypothesis.” That is, everyone in a society with a government and/or a private property rights system is better off than anyone could be in a society without those institutions. In other words, the “Lockean Proviso” is fulfilled—whether b…
The Hobbesian Hypothesis in Anthropology
This chapter explores how Hobbesian ideas affected the development of anthropology and how “the Hobbesian hypotheses” (the claim that everyone is better off in a state society with a private property system than they could reasonably expect to be in any society without either of those institutions) has appeared in the history of anthropological thought and in popular anthropology. Although many of the issues discussed remain the subject of debate…
Why private property?”
The Pursuit of Accord: Toward a Theory of Justice with a Second-Best Approach to the Insider-Outsider Problem
La plupart des théories de la justice offrent des approches en première intention au problème de l’ insider et de l’ outsider en supposant que les humains peuvent créer une structure sociale de base que personne ne pourrait raisonnablement rejeter. Cet article soutient qu’il n’existe pas de telles solutions en première intention et que la croyance en de telles solutions désavantage systématiquement les personnes les moins puissantes sur les plans…
The pursuit of accord: Toward a theory of justice with a second-best approach to the insider-outsider problem
Why Private Property?”
Le texte suivant est la transcription de la table ronde qui a clôturé la conférence internationale « Pourquoi la propriété privée ? » (organisée à l’Université libre de Bruxelles en juin 2018). Philippe Van Parijs a accepté d’animer la discussion et d’organiser la confrontation des thèses de Jean-Fabien Spitz, Hillel Steiner et Karl Widerquist sur la propriété privée. La discussion est divisée en trois moments principaux. Tout d’abord, les orateu…
The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory
This book examines the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day to debunk three widely accepted false beliefs about the private property system: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that there is something “natural” about the private property system. That i…
The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory
Examines the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day Traces the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day showing that it was not the product of 'appropriation' and 'voluntary trade' but of a long history of violent aggression Reviews the long history of contradictory explanations why inequality is supposedly natural and inevitable or an …
Material conditions and human freedom: David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021)
Political science (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law and economics (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (8 works)