Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts
Major
Philosophy
Date of Defense
4-23-2021
Graduate Advisor
Gualtiero Piccinini
Committee
William Dunaway
Gualtiero Piccinini
Eric Wiland
Abstract
First, I categorize the liberal theories of self-determination into two broad categories of nationalist and non-nationalist theories. Then, I argue that both of these categories ultimately fail to fully account for the major problems normally associated with the demands of self-determination. In particular, I argue that liberal political theorists, by and large, advocate a forward-looking account of justice, which makes the starting point from which they build their arguments not neutral. They largely ignore how a state has come to govern a particular minority. Instead, they are mainly concerned with the current and future conditions under which the right to self-determination is justified. Ignoring historical justice in theories of self-determination has led to a theoretical bias in favor of the status quo, the ‘peoples’ (nations) that already possess a state, and thus the inability of these theories (and of states and international legal systems) to fully recognize the right of self-determination for minority (and minoritized) nations. While still committed to liberalism as a theoretical ground—and based on a collective conception of Locke’s Theory of Natural Property Rights and Nozick’s Doctrine of Historical Entitlement—I argue that there is a need for re-conceptualization of justice in the context of the relationship between national minorities and their parent states to also account for their contemporary historical context—a conception of justice that I argue is better suited for addressing the claims of self-determination than its rival distributive, forward-looking conceptions of justice.
Note: This thesis is under a author requested embargo until 2221, after which it will become available in accordance with end of expected copyright protection. This embargo year is intentional and not an error.
Recommended Citation
Ahmadi, Zanyar, "Self-Determination as Historical Justice" (2021). Theses. 412.
https://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/412
