Yes.

In the view of John Locke, the initial state of the world was a free-for-all in terms of land grab. Then as we mixed our labor with the soil, it became ours. That which we worked on and improved, was our property.

Warfare introduced a different ownership mechanic: the winner writes the rules. As warlords conquered regions, they primarily forced taxation upon the subjects, while later they would also coerce religious conversion. Contested land and property was always a trigger for warfare.

As empires grew, civilization and innovations spread more rapidly. With higher energy density new methods of production could catapult innovation.

As our capacity to prosper increased, ethics begged the question - why do we need to conquer, when we can trade? Trade is the voluntary exchange of property.

Yet, our new ethics has no simple answer of how to address historical claims through conquest. Land so and so was conquered, then people mixed their work with the land and it became their property over time. We end up inheriting a complex weave of centuries and millennia, with people mixing their work with the land.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

And what of the peoples who did not work the land, but instead used the land in a way that sustained it? They did not till the soil, build structures, or modify it in anyway. They did however understand which berries to use andin which season. Which nuts to gather and which buffalo to kill. How would one define their claims to such “property”?

Good question. Regional settlership I assume. Roots. Connection to the land. Generations born or buried on the land.

Locke's approach to property rights was an early attempt at a definition, demonstrating that we can own a house, property, some land that we worked, but we can't own other people.

There are naturally flaws in his definitions of property, yet he was one of the first philosphers to clarify a consistent position against human slavery. Socrates dared at most to suggest that Greeks should not enslave fellow Greeks, and that was perhaps bordering a controversial stance at his time.

Yes, some argue that the famous chapter on property, which contains most of the references to Amerindians in the Two Treatises, was written to justify the 17th-century dispossession of the aboriginal peoples of their land, through a vigorous defence of England's ‘superior’ claims to proprietorship.

If I consider his rather strong position against slavery and his controversial defense against exploitation, via his term 'state of war' against oppressors, then I find it hard to believe that he would want to dispossess people. It seems that such a task would be more fitting for the philosophers of his time that he criticized.

Maybe he didn't intend for his words to be used in such a way, but I believe the interpretation of his work was used as such.