John Locke was a prominent thinker of the 16th century, commonly remembered today for his contributions to what we would now equate to modern-day libertarian philosophy, or perhaps more accurately, classical liberalism. Undoubtedly among his most famous works was his Second Treatise of Government, in which the Lockean ideas of self-ownership and property rights were effectively birthed.

Therein, Locke defines self-ownership as having sole claim of and control over your own self. He ties this directly into his concept of property rights, which he believes to be inherently derivative from self-ownership. Locke famously stated that an individual could rightfully take possession of an un-owned thing in the state of nature by mixing their labor with it. Moreover, he believed that delegating some rights to the government was necessary in order to ensure security of natural rights.

Murray Rothbard, however, viewed the situation in a somewhat different manner. A notable 20th century economist and a vocal libertarian, Rothbard emphasized self-ownership to an even greater extent, believing that any sort of government interference–even minimal in nature–is a violation of rights through taxation; that is, legal coercion.

In The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard justified this idea of complete and total self-ownership by simply comparing and subsequently discrediting any other possible alternative. The alternative ideas cited were that of nobody owning anyone, everyone owning a portion of himself and everyone else, and lastly, partial ownership of one group by another. Rothbard concluded that because none of these were logically feasible, a system of uncompromising, 100% self-ownership would be the only plausible solution. He was adamant that not even minimal government could be justifiable under his ideology.🔹