Concept
Labor theory of property
Overview
The labor theory of property, also called the labor theory of appropriation, labor theory of ownership, labor theory of entitlement, and principle of first appropriation, is a theory of natural law that holds that property originally comes about by the exertion of labor upon natural resources. The theory has been used to justify the homestead principle, which holds that one may gain whole permanent ownership of an unowned natural resource by performing an act of original appropriation.
In his Second Treatise on Government, the philosopher John Locke asked by what right an individual can claim to own one part of the world, when, according to the Bible, God gave the world to all humanity in common. He answered that, although persons belong to God, they own the fruits of their labor. When a person works, that labor enters into the object upon which they are working. Thus, the object becomes the property of that person; however, Locke held that one may only appropriate property in this fashion if the Lockean proviso held true, that is, "... there is enough, and as good, left in common for others".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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To make this a little clearer, let us but trace some of the ordinary provisions of life, through their several progresses, before they come to our use, and see how much they receive of their value from human industry. Bread, wine and cloth, are things of daily use, and great plenty; yet notwithstanding, acorns, water and leaves, or skins, must be our bread, drink and cloathing, did not labour furnish us with these…
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
States what Labor theory of property is; the author is tied to Labor theory of property in the knowledge graph.
Besides, it is difficult to secure the property of individuals on one side, without attacking it on another; and it is impossible that all the regulations which govern the order of succession, will, contracts, &c. should not lay individuals under some constraint as to the disposition of their goods, and should not consequently restrict the right of property.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
The author is tied to Labor theory of property in the knowledge graph.
This origin is so much the more natural, as it is impossible to conceive how property can flow from any other source but industry; for what can a man add but his labour to things which he has not made, in order to acquire a property in them? 'Tis the labour of the hands alone, which giving the husbandman a title to the produce of the land he has tilled gives him a title to the land itself, at least till he has…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind
The author is tied to Labor theory of property in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Labor theory of property
Related ideas
- Intellectual property
- Private property
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- John Locke
- Jeremy Waldron
- Murray Rothbard
- Judith Jarvis Thomson
- Natural law
- Robert Nozick
- Natural rights and legal rights
- Bible
- Category mistake
- Benjamin Tucker
- Lysander Spooner
- Discourse on Inequality
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.