Thomas Piketty and the Natural Rights Argument for Equality
Keywords:
equality, property rights, Thomas Piketty, Jean Barbeyrac, John LockeAbstract
Thomas Piketty’s work has elevated equality to the forefront of policy discussions. This essay supports Piketty’s project by proposing a theoretical grounding for his ideas in natural rights theory. It briefly traces French rights theory back through enlightenment figures to the French theorist Jean Barbeyrac, a younger contemporary and follower of the political philosopher John Locke. The essay then explicates Locke’s theory to show how he, and by extension Barbeyrac, held property rights not as private and exclusive but in common and inclusive, subject to egalitarian constraints and societal obligations, thereby undergirding Piketty’s arguments for equality.
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