N.º 1 – A THEORY OF LIBERTARIST JUSTICE: NOZICK AND STEINER’S CONTRIBUTIONS
The present work originated in the master’s dissertation that the author wrote, over the years 2015 and 2016, within the scope of the master’s degree in Political Philosophy at the University of Minho. To a large extent, this origin reveals the nature of the work carried out, as well as its form. Pretext, text and context closely follow both the nature and the form of the academic work, in this particular case assuming an especially analytical and comparative character. Now, we can say that the work is based on three fundamental axes. The first of these axes corresponds to the analytical approach of the work developed, constituting a serious and resolved attempt to penetrate the two libertarian theories that make up the object of our study. The second axis corresponds to the comparative method that we decided to adopt, which will allow us, after the analysis carried out in the first two parts of the work, to list, in a conclusive and compiled form, the convergent and divergent points that unite and separate Nozick and Steiner. The third axis of our work, although with a different content from the two previous ones, concerns an implicit problem in the analysis that we will make of the two currents of libertarianism. With this third axis, we intend to question the nature of the relationship between the principles of property and freedom, as well as the role that both play in libertarianism, considering the impact that the prioritization of one (property) over the other (freedom) can have for the coherence of libertarianism as a political philosophy. There are, therefore, three main foundations on which the construction of this work is based, namely, an analytical and critical element, a comparative and dialogic element and a last imminently critical and reflective element.