Citações CXLIX

If I learn a that Harry the Hit Man intends to kill me next week, for instance, I do not have the right to shoot him today as he eats his Big Mac in peace, in a preemptive attack. By contrast, if Harry is swinging a knife at me at close quartes this very moment, then I do have the right to defend myself with lethal force. In the spectrum of cases between these two extremes, however, where exactly do we draw the line between reasonable and unreasonable uses of force? [...]Libertarians will have to distinguish between reckessness [...] that rises to the level of criminal negligence and recklessness that falls short of this level [...] A key criterion in drawing these lines will be whether or not a person has taken reasonable precautions against harming others. [...] [The] property rights will be subject to judgments of reasonableness, moreover, for the dregree of control that one has over one's legal property should surely not be absolute.

Craig Duncan, in Libertarianism for and against

[a propósito desta discussão.]

[aL]