Robert Lamb, Property, Polity Press, 2020.

A book by Robert Lamb on Property

Robert Lamb, Property, Polity Press, 2020.

In this book, I discuss historical and contemporary theories of property rights. I explore some of the most important philosophical arguments deployed to conceptualise, justify, and criticise private property ownership. After I tackle the tricky conceptual issue of defining exactly what we mean we talk about private property, I introduce the radical case against it advanced by anarchist and socialist writers, those who put the justificatory burden on defenders of property. The question for these writers is, given that the institution of private property seems inevitably to involve rights of exclusion, as well as often significant economic inequalities, how can it be justified, and along what lines? I then analyse and assess some of the most important and influential arguments in favour of property rights in Western political thought, looking at the theories put forward by John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, G.W.F. Hegel, Robert Nozick, and John Rawls. Following this survey of various theories, I suggest that property can be justified, though not in the way some of its most ardent cheerleaders think, and that its justification seems to point towards the potentially radical reconceptualization of the terms of private ownership within liberal democracies.

Date: 25 November 2021