Abstract
Shmuel Nili claims that when a country buys fossil fuels from dictatorships it becomes complicit with property rights violations in those dictatorships. Thus, Nili argues, people who have a strong commitment to property rights should support a ban on fossil fuel imports from dictatorships, and a transition to renewable energy. This article critically discusses Nili’s argument. The argument fails to consider competing moral reasons that some people may have to oppose a ban on fossil fuel imports from dictatorships, such as moral preference for family and compatriots. The argument also mistakenly assumes that renewable energy would be overwhelmingly economically attractive when fossil fuel imports are forbidden, and that switching to renewable energy would not involve importing stolen goods too. The article ends more propositively, by elaborating an alternative argument that Nili dismisses too quickly, and which may help persuade those who are strongly committed to property rights of transitioning to renewable energy: the argument that transitioning would help avoid violating those rights through contributions to harmful climate change.
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© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus: Shmuel Nili, Philosophizing the Indefensible: Strategic Political Theory
- Précis of Philosophizing the Indefensible
- Should we Distinguish Between Repugnant and Non-Repugnant Unreasonable Views?
- Property Rights, Fossil Fuel Imports, and Climate Change
- Civic Friendship, the Burdens of Politics, and the Ethics of Attention
- Philosophizing the Indefensible: Reply to Critics
- General Part
- What Can Historicising Rawls Achieve?
- Can Two Opposing Narratives Be Equally Valid? Reflections on Zreik’s Reflections on the War in Gaza
- Just Independence Wars and the October 7th Massacre
- Past, Present, and Future: A Reply to Heyd and Benbaji
- Proportionality and Necessity in Israel’s Invasion of Gaza, 2023–2024
- Discussion
- Response to My Critics
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus: Shmuel Nili, Philosophizing the Indefensible: Strategic Political Theory
- Précis of Philosophizing the Indefensible
- Should we Distinguish Between Repugnant and Non-Repugnant Unreasonable Views?
- Property Rights, Fossil Fuel Imports, and Climate Change
- Civic Friendship, the Burdens of Politics, and the Ethics of Attention
- Philosophizing the Indefensible: Reply to Critics
- General Part
- What Can Historicising Rawls Achieve?
- Can Two Opposing Narratives Be Equally Valid? Reflections on Zreik’s Reflections on the War in Gaza
- Just Independence Wars and the October 7th Massacre
- Past, Present, and Future: A Reply to Heyd and Benbaji
- Proportionality and Necessity in Israel’s Invasion of Gaza, 2023–2024
- Discussion
- Response to My Critics