What is Property?

Property never has been abolished and never will be abolished. It is simply a question of who has it. And the fairest system ever devised is one by which all, rather than none, [are] property owners. — A. N. Wilson

Property has wide-ranging definitions. The idea of what constitutes property often changes to reflect contemporary beliefs and circumstances. For example, early discussions of property almost always exclusively referred to land. Since it was mostly land that was the source of constant conflicts and struggle for power, it was natural that land occupied the minds of ancient thinkers. Later, as society develops, property was expanded to include intangible assets such as patents and copyrights, and then expanded again to encompass all things deemed necessary for life and liberty.

Formally speaking, property is a legal concept defined and enforced by a local sovereignty. The specific implementation varies greatly depending on the political system, from monarchy to communism to democracy, among others.

Discussions on property dated back to Greek civilization. Plato and Aristotle, the two fathers of Western philosophy, laid much of the groundwork for the fierce and at times extremely bloody debates that followed in the subsequent 2,500 years.

Plato, likely inspired by the Spartans, was against private property of all sorts, including men’s wives and children. He rejected the idea of “mine” and “not mine”, “his” and “not his”. According to him, private property corrupts the human soul: it fosters greed, jealousy and violence. An ideal Platonic society would eradicate private property entirely. This school of thought was later developed into a full-fledged system, most notably by Karl Marx, the father of communism.

Aristotle, Plato’s best student, had other ideas. Aristotle rejected Plato’s argument that common property would remove vices and violence, arguing that people who share stuff tend to fight more than those who own them personally. Aristotle also believed that private ownership is crucial to progress because people would only be incentivized to work hard for the things they own. Furthermore, only when private property rights are respected, people can have the opportunity to fully grow and afford to be virtuous. As the late historian Richard Pipes eloquently put it: “Human beings must have, in order to be.”

Plato (427–347BC) and Aristotle (384–322BC)

Plato’s central argument against private property rested on morality. Aristotle also responded to Plato on the ground of morality. But some of Aristotle’s arguments went beyond morality and into the realm of economic reality. (Interestingly, like his teacher, Aristotle was against trade and profit-seeking, so he did not develop a consistent economic framework.)

The discussions on property since Plato & Aristotle have evolved to include mainly four aspects: morality, politics, psychology, and economics [1]. Among these, psychological and economical arguments for private property probably bear the most weight, since they address the world as it is, not how it should be.

One of the fundamental questions regarding property is that between property and sovereignty, which comes first?

Some influential thinkers, such as Harrington & Locke, believed that property predated sovereignty. They believed humans intuitively understand property, even without the existence of a state.

To them the primary function of a state is to protect property rights. A sovereign state is judged on its merits to fulfill this responsibility. Locke went further and stated that individuals have the right to rebel against the state if it fails in its duty to preserve property rights. Adam Smith, the father of capitalism and modern economics, had a similar view. Smith recognized that property and government were dependent on each other, and argued that “civil government could not exist without property, as its main function is to safeguard property ownership”. (Smith differed with Locke, however, on whether property rights are “natural” — he believed property rights are “acquired” rights, not “natural” rights).

In contrast, other thinkers, most prominently Hobbes, believed it was the opposite, that property is a creation of the state. He regarded property simply as the product of authority and the acceptance of that authority [2].

There has been mounting evidence, particularly in the later half of the 20th century, that vindicated Harrington’s & Locke’s view. The 20th century saw a large-scale social experiment in attempting to abolish private property via the spread of communism. This experiment resulted in the Cold War and numerous proxy wars across the globe, culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and ended dramatically when the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991. Following this collapse, the remaining communist states were split into two camps. Some switched to capitalism, as many Central & Eastern European countries did. Some retained only a nominal form of communism, as China & Vietnam did — in these countries the political regime purports to represent the “bourgeois”, but the economy functions much like that of a capitalist state. Almost all surviving communist states have adopted free-market ideology, and were forced to respect property rights (to a certain extent) in order to survive.

In summary, what the 20th century has shown us is that governments that failed in their primary role of protecting property ended up either dead or forced to eventually respect private property. This proves that the state is subservient to, and is a derivative of, property needs, not the other way around. Property, by and large, comes before the state.

Despite this, in the short to medium term, individuals do have to depend on the state for preserving their property rights, and suffer a great deal when it fails to do so. We will see how cryptography can help break this cycle of dependency. But first, let’s quickly look at how modern cryptography came about.