Ethics Discussion Group: Chris Essert (Toronto)

Call the idea that there could be parts of the world beyond oneself with respect to which one could have normative control over the actions of others the idea of yours and mine. I argue that this idea is presupposed by (and partly constitutive of) an extremely broad set of activities, interactions, and forms of life that play a central role in the lives of the members of a society of equals. Roughly, participation on terms of equality in activities that involve the use of space or the use of objects would be unavailable to us without this idea; call this unavailability the problem (of yours and mine). A basic commitment to living together on terms of equality requires us to solve the problem. That is, we need to create an institution that allows us to relate to one another on terms of equality through the idea of yours and mine. We have a name for such an institution: we call it property. An institution of property, on this view, is any system that solves the problem and makes it possible for us to relate as equals through the idea of yours and mine. The idea itself is sufficiently indeterminate that many different kinds of institutions—from full liberal ownership through market socialism and beyond—can count as systems of property in this sense. For it to be possible to relate as equals we need such an institution, but the very act of creating such an institution brings with it the means for creating a new form of the very problem it was meant to address, as the propertied gain the legal capacity to subordinate the propertyless. We cannot eliminate this new subordination by eliminating property; moving backwards in that way would just re-create the original problem of yours and mine. Instead, we need to see that the very same considerations that demand the creation of an institution of property create an internal demand on such an institution, calling on it to constantly strive for better and better realization of the ideal of relating to one another on terms of equality through the idea of yours and mine, and ideal I call the community of yours and mine.