LOCKE'S THEORY OF ORIGINAL ACQUISITION

Locke's theory of original acquisition

Locke's Theory of Original Acquisition

General Justification of Property

Locke begins his account with a general justification property: an explanation of why property is necessary or justified at all. Property is introduced as a solution to a practical problem. Were there no special need to divide the world into bundles of exclusive control the very notion of property would make no justificatory sense.

Lockean Theory of Original Acquisition

For Locke, the problem is the need to enable persons to provide for their own subsistence:

men, being once born, have a right to their preservation, and consequently to meat and drink, and such other things, as nature affords for their subsistence . . . yet being given for the use of men, there must of necessity be a means to appropriate them some way or other before they can be of any use, or at all beneficial to any particular man (Locke, 1960/1698, pp. 285, 286f)

Discussion

In order to survive, people must eat and drink, perhaps wear protective clothing and inhabit a dwelling. To do this they must take natural resources, initially not owned, and make them their exclusive property. This is a crucial background supposition that gives the subsequent discussion its urgency and ultimate justification. It also situates the basic notion of self-preservation as the dominant principle within the theory so that any consequences of the theory that might come into conflict with it would be checked or overridden.

Though it seems reasonable that food and drink must exclude others in the process of their consumption, it is far from clear that this implies a property right in any interesting sense. For a property right includes not merely use, but also control, management and the right to transfer. Yet these incidents do not apply in the case of a chewed, swallowed and digested apple, for example. If what I am permitted to take from nature is what I need to eat and drink, then I may do just that. Of course, in a slightly more advanced economy I may want to specialize in apples, say, and trade them for your eggs. Exclusive property rights are certainly required to allow a division of labor to develop and for the possibility of trade, but it does not follow that these are necessary for subsistence.

Rights to clothing and shelter, in so far as they are justified as necessary means of subsistence this may not be used in any way other than that. This allows such little discretion regarding how these assets may be used that it is hardly plausible to call whatever rights one may have in respect of these property rights. Nevertheless, whatever rights these are they would need to be exclusive if even a minimal degree of privacy is to be secured.

We may need exclusive rights over agricultural land, but then again, only over the amount necessary to produce our subsistence needs, that is to say, the produce that we are likely to ...