Locke, Nozick and the state of nature

Justin Bruner

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Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought Philosophical Ethics and Theory Political Philosophy and Ethics

Abstract

Recently, philosophers have drawn on tools from game theory to explore behavior in Hobbes’ state of nature (Vanderschraaf in Econ Philos 22:243–279, 2006 ; Chung in J Am Philos Assoc 1:485–508, 2015 ). I take a similar approach and argue the Lockean state of nature is best conceived of as a conflictual coordination game. I also discuss Nozick’s famous claim regarding the emergence of the state and argue the path to the minimal state is blocked by a hitherto unnoticed free-rider problem. Finally, I argue that on my representation of the Lockean state of nature both widespread conflict and lasting peace are possible. This, I contend, is in line with one popular interpretation of Locke (Simmons in Polit Theory 17:449–470, 1989 ).

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References

1988Evolution and the Theory of Games 1982Evolution and the Theory of Games 2018Anarchy, State, and Utopia 1975Anarchy, State, and Utopia 1974Subjectivity and correlation in randomized strategies 2003The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure 2005Population Games and Evolutionary Dynamics 201619. The Second Treatise of Government

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