POLT12200 Study Guide - Final Guide: Robert Nozick, Political Philosophy, Tomato Juice
Document Summary
Discuss john locke"s theory of labour mixing in terms of private property. John locke"s theory of labour mixing was that when a person mixes their labour with something, they obtain property rights to it. When a person mixed their labour with the land to grow food, they had the rights to the land. The issue with this is that it requires the following premise: if you own x and mix it with something unowned (y), you now own y. Robert nozick thought this premise was false, so he provided a counterexample to it. His example was that he had tomato juice which he mixed with poison. He suggested that if he dumped it into the ocean and mixed it in, he would under locke"s premise, now own the ocean. A possible x to this issue would be to require that the mixing adds value to the property.
