The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory (Screening Antiquity) - Softcover

Widerquist, Karl; McCall, Grant

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1474447430 ISBN 13: 9781474447430

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2022

Synopsis

This book debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist and unequal private property rights. The authors review the history of the use and importance of these claims in philosophy, and use thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute them. They show that societies with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions.

About this title

About the Author

Karl Widerquist, Professor in Political Theory, Georgetown University. Grant McCall, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Tulane University.

From the Back Cover

Examining the origin and development of the private property rights system from prehistory to the present day This book debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems: that inequality is natural, inevitable, or incompatible with freedom; that capitalism is more consistent with negative freedom than any other conceivable economic system; and that the normative principles of appropriation and voluntary transfer applied in the world in which we live support a capitalist system with strong, individualist and unequal private property rights. The authors review the history of the use and importance of these claims in philosophy, and use thorough anthropological and historical evidence to refute them. They show that societies with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions. Karl Widerquist is Professor of political philosophy at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University. Grant S. McCall is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University and Executive Director of the Center for Human-Environmental Research.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1474447430
• ISBN 13: 9781474447430
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288