On Property. Philosophical Remarks between Locke and Fichte

Abstract

In the tradition of liberal thought the idea of property is associated with the name of John Locke. In his formulation, the right of ownership is dependent on the capacity of the subject for work and labor. Following this input, Fichte deals with the issue of property in different passages of his works: from the anonymous essays of the so-called “Jacobin” time to the Closed Commercial State, going through the Lessons on the mission of the scholar and the essay on the Natural Right. The paper intends to expose Fichte’s idea of property both by highligting its peculiar thraits and fixing the problematic or controversial aspects of its meaning and implications. In this reconstruction Fichte’s viewpoint is constantly put under comparison with Locke’s one, even though the name of Locke is not explicitly mentioned in Fichte’s texts. What ensues from the clarification of Fichte’s idea of property is a twofold goal: on the one side, it represents a specification of Fichte’s idealistic and activistic approach to reality and the human being, so allowing to go more deeply into the investigation of the binding link between Fichte’s transcendental philosophy and his socio-political viewpoints; on the other side, the idea of property makes up the crossing point of many philosophical thesis regarding the nature of the State and the State of nature, the connection between the State and the individual rights, the difference between State and society in Fichte’s view, the types of contracts and the functions of the State in the economical sphere.

By taking into account Fichte’s texts from different stages of his intellectual work, the paper delivers a problematic overview of these points, so focusing in a critical way on a concept which has been key for the constitution of our liberal Western society.