Roderick T. Long, Auburn University
Libertarians believe we have a right not to be aggressed against (the Positive Thesis). They also believe that this is the ONLY right we have (the Negative Thesis). The Negative Thesis strikes non-libertarians as far less plausible than the Positive Thesis. I argue, however, that the Positive Thesis entails the Negative Thesis. In addition, I argue that, given the Positive Thesis, a libertarian system of property rights is more defensible than a welfare-state system. Hence libertarianism as a whole stands or falls with the Positive Thesis.