Civil Discourse: Property Rights

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Inherently, property rights are a natural right--this is my food that I hunted, this is my chair that I made. Taking those from me is morally wrong; it is a natural right for me to possess things that I crafted/accomplished with my own hands, alone.

But beyond that it gets gray: land property is not a natural right unless maybe it manages to fit into the above category; that is, if I have farmed that land, or cleared the forest for my animals. My owning a house that some construction company built is a social convention. And once I start adding transactions into the mix, it is also no longer a natural right: if I hunt extra food, and exchange it with the guy who built an extra chair, that gets outside the realm of natural rights and into the realm of social convention. I don't have the natural right to trade my items with others, whether the balance of the exchange be favorable to one, both, or neither of us--I only have the natural right to take care of myself without interference.

I'd argue your first point as being social constructs. Your sense of 'self' and 'I' are completely informed by your upbringing. Even the concept of 'self' and 'other' is learned. Consider that infants do not distinguish the world as separate from themselves until something like a year old, IIRC. It is just as easy for me to consider a world view where there is 'food' not 'my food'. Heck, I know people who are like that that aren't even Buddhist monks.