Global Natural Common Goods

Abstract

During premodernity, the argumentation about natural common goods goes a long way towards explaining that nobody can be excluded from them, and this view in the West has been deepened, for example, by philosophers/jurists in the 16th century such as Francisco de Vitoria. But it was progressively abandoned, and in the 19th, it was not definitely a popular topic of reflection. Anyway, it begins to be recuperated by the work of Olson and others during the 1960s. The author's aim is to analyze the ethical basis of all these new recuperations by social scientists, especially characterized by Elinor Ostrom (The Govern of Commons) and to introduce a proper philosophical debate about them. Questions and proposals that have to do with the common sphere (res publica) would lead us to introduce new political, anthropological, and ethical clues. The results of the exacerbation of modern individualism are essentially contradictory with commons. Then, the author analyzes the current methods to guarantee the commons and their limitations.