THE NORMATIVE FUNCTIONS OF COERCION CLAIMS

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONA says to B: “Unless you x, I will y.” Or, equivalently, “I will –y if and only if you x.” Is this proposal coercive? If B performs x has he been coerced? Is this an instance of coercion? Moral and political philosophers, as well as legal theorists, have struggled with these questions at least since Aristotle but have been tackling them with renewed vigor since Robert Nozick’s seminal 1969 article.Robert Nozick, Coercion, in PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCEAND METHOD 440 (Sidney Morgenbesser et al., ed. 1969). And, happily, scholarly efforts over the past few decades have substantially advanced our understanding.The most comprehensive account, which explores coercion from both legal and philosophical perspectives, is Alan Wertheimer, COERCION (1987). Other particularly valuable contributions to a substantial literature include Joel Feinberg, HARMTO SELF 189–268 (1986); Harry G. Frankfurt, Coercion and Moral Responsibility, in ESSAYSON FREEDOMOF ACTION 63 (Ted Honderich ed. 1973); Vinit Haksar, Coercive Proposals, 4 POL. THEORY 65 (1976); Daniel Lyons, Welcome Threats and Coercive Offers, 50 PHIL. 425 (1975); Peter Westen, “Freedom” and “Coercion”—Virtue Words and Vice Words, 1985 DUKE L.J. 541; and David Zimmerman, Coercive Wage Offers, 10 PHIL. & PUB. AFFAIRS 121 (1981). Most significantly, in my view, they have made increasingly clear (despite a few remaining dissenters) that answers to these coercion questions are thoroughly moralized in the sense that the questions cannot be resolved by reference solely to nonmoral facts. But if the answers themselves are moralized, so too, of course, are the questions. That is, coercion claims arise, and stake a claim to our attention, in order to serve some sort—or sorts—of normative needs.

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