In our Spotlight presentation on Monday, Dr. Andy Little argued that we live in a society fixated on property ownership. As a result, projects like the Cedar Creek Waterway will often lead to property rights disputes between the city and private individuals. He also stated, however, that our way of understanding property is not the only way. In other places and at other times, humans have understood the land in terms of use rather than ownership. Part of the conflict between Native Americans and European settlers, for example, \u00a0pivoted on different understandings of the land. One group thought in terms of use, the other in terms of ownership.<\/p>\n
In his 1754 essay, “On the Origin of the Inequality of Mankind,” Jean Jacques Rousseau decried private property as ultimately harmful to human society. He writes at the beginning of the second part of the essay:<\/p>\n
The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, “Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Do you agree with Rousseau’s perspective? Why or why not? How do you think we should view the land?<\/p>\n
BONUS: Can you find a philosopher contemporary with Rousseau (though a little earlier) who articulated a different understanding of private property? (Hint: his ideas were foundational for our own Declaration of Independence.)<\/p>\n
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