more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 21735

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 4. Property rights ]

Full Idea

In the prehistory of anything that is now private property there was at least one moment at which something privately unowned was taken into private ownership.

Gist of Idea

Every thing which is now private started out as unowned

Source

G.A. Cohen (Are Freedom and Equality Compatible? [1986], 2)

Book Ref

'Contemporary Political Philosophy (2nd ed)', ed/tr. Goodin,RE/Pettit,P [Blackwell 2006], p.418

A Reaction

He is obviously talking about land and natural resources. Presumably a table which I made and own was always private property, although the land where the trees were grown was not. Though in some communities what I make could be automatically communal.

The 47 ideas with the same theme [right to own land and personal possessions]:

22537 Property should be owned privately, but used communally [Aristotle]
6580 Locke (and Marx) held that ownership of objects is a natural relation, based on the labour put into it [Locke, by Fogelin]
20520 Locke says 'mixing of labour' entitles you to land, as well as nuts and berries [Wolff,J on Locke]
19875 A man's labour gives ownership rights - as long as there are fair shares for all [Locke]
19874 If a man mixes his labour with something in Nature, he thereby comes to own it [Locke]
19876 Gathering natural fruits gives ownership; the consent of other people is irrelevant [Locke]
19877 Fountain water is everyone's, but a drawn pitcher of water has an owner [Locke]
19878 Mixing labour with a thing bestows ownership - as long as the thing is not wasted [Locke]
19879 A man owns land if he cultivates it, to the limits of what he needs [Locke]
19898 Soldiers can be commanded to die, but not to hand over their money [Locke]
12548 It is certain that injustice requires property, since it is a violation of the right to property [Locke]
21095 It is an exaggeration to say that property is the foundation of all government [Hume]
6581 Hume thought (unlike Locke) that property is a merely conventional relationship [Hume, by Fogelin]
21102 We all know that the history of property is founded on injustices [Hume]
19777 Persuading other people that some land was 'owned' was the beginning of society [Rousseau]
19782 What else could property arise from, but the labour people add to it? [Rousseau]
19781 Land cultivation led to a general right of ownership, administered justly [Rousseau]
19754 If we have a natural right to property, what exactly does 'belonging to' mean? [Rousseau]
19799 Private property must always be subordinate to ownership by the whole community [Rousseau]
21090 If someone has largely made something, then they own it [Kant]
19862 Property is a sacred right, breached only when essential, and with fair compensation [Mirabeau/committee]
21782 Man has an absolute right to appropriate things [Hegel]
22773 Because only human beings can own property, everything else can become our property [Hegel]
22774 A community does not have the property-owning rights that a person has [Hegel]
22775 The owner of a thing is obviously the first person to freely take possession of it [Hegel]
20523 Property is theft! [Proudhon]
5291 The law says private property is the result of the general will [Marx/Engels]
23048 The ground of property ownership is not force but the power to use it for social ends [Green,TH, by Muirhead]
23049 Property is needed by all citizens, to empower them to achieve social goods [Green,TH]
23204 To be someone you need property, and wanting more is healthy [Nietzsche]
21524 The right to own land gives a legal right to a permanent income [Russell]
23820 People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful [Weil]
21734 It is plausible that no one has an initial right to own land and natural resources [Cohen,GA]
21736 It is doubtful whether any private property was originally acquired legitimately [Cohen,GA]
21735 Every thing which is now private started out as unowned [Cohen,GA]
22813 Property is not essential for life, but it may be essential for independence [Taylor,C]
20539 Property is legitimate by initial acquisition, voluntary transfer, or rectification of injustice [Nozick, by Swift]
18645 Nozick assumes initial holdings include property rights, but we can challenge that [Kymlicka on Nozick]
18646 How did the private property get started? If violence was involved, we can redistribute it [Kymlicka on Nozick]
18647 If property is only initially acquired by denying the rights of others, Nozick can't get started [Kymlicka on Nozick]
20521 Can I come to own the sea, by mixing my private tomato juice with it? [Nozick]
21737 Unowned things may be permanently acquired, if it doesn't worsen the position of other people [Nozick]
21738 Maybe land was originally collectively owned, rather than unowned? [Cohen,GA on Nozick]
20522 Utilitarians might say property ownership encourages the best use of the land [Wolff,J]
20096 Roman law entrenched property rights [Micklethwait/Wooldridge]
20541 You can't necessarily sell your legitimate right to something, even if you produced it [Swift]
20546 Libertarians about property ignore the fact that private property is a denial of freedoms [Swift]