Talk:Right to property

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History section

Created article stub, needs extension, especially history section.[1]--SasiSasi (talk) 17:38, 18 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Bias

I cannot imagine this article being more biased without being written by either John Locke or Karl Marx. It is is need of serious revision to present opinions as such rather than as facts. 130.160.155.183 (talk) 06:26, 28 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

property as relation or as thing

You first need to define property in this article. And not switch back and forth from one definition to another (a lot of writers get this confused, including the editor).

There are two definitions of the general concept of property (which is not the same thing as private property i.e. private, collective, communal, etc. are specific forms that the general concept property can take, even though in classical liberal texts, the general term property is mistakenly equated with private property).

Property can refer to a thing/object(s) possessed/owned. But in law and in logic, the general concept of property refers to relationships among and between people and things i.e. rights attached to ownership, specifically the right to control the use or benefit to which ownership is put. "Property denotes not material things but certain rights...A property right is a relation not between an owner and a thing, but between the owner and other individuals in reference to things" (Morris Cohen, American jurist cited in Clement, 1983, p.212).

So, property refers to CLAIMS, ENTITLEMENTS, RIGHTS to the use and disposal of things vis-a-vis other members of a social unit. That is not the same thing as referring to property as a thing. Private property, following a relationship definition, refers to exclusive claims, rights and entitlements to the use and disposal of things (essentially meaning the denial of a social relationship).

Moreover, it is worth noting that "the meaning of property is not constant. The actual institution, and the way people see it, and hence the meaning they give to the word, all change over time. The changes are related to changes in the purposes which society or the dominant classes in society expect the institution of property to serve" (1978, p.1). Macpherson has argued the use of the concept property as things and property as identical with private property can be traced historically to the period of the rise of the full capitalist market society (see Macpherson, 1978, sections 3, 4, 5).