Thinking about property : from antiquity to the age of revolution / Peter Garnsey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garnsey, Peter.

Series:

Ideas in context ; 90.

Ideas in context ; 90

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Right of property--History.

Right of property.

Property--Philosophy--History.

Property.

Property--Religious aspects.

Personal property.

Personal property--Moral and ethical aspects.

Property--Philosophy.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 267 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

In this book Professor Garnsey explores ancient 'foundational' texts relating to property and their reception by later thinkers in their various contexts up to the early nineteenth century. The texts include Plato's vision of an ideal polity in the Republic, Jesus' teachings on renunciation and poverty, and Golden Age narratives and other evolutionary accounts of the transition of mankind from primeval communality to regimes of ownership. The issue of the legitimacy of private ownership exercises the minds of the major political thinkers as well as theologians and jurists throughout the ages. Among those whose ideas are woven into the discussion are Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Jesus, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Bartolus, William of Ockham, Plethon of Mistra, Grotius, Pufendorf, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Proudhon. The book gives full consideration to the historical development of Rights Theory, with special reference to the right to property. It challenges the dominant historical paradigm that the ancient world made little or no contribution to Rights Theory. The book ends with a comparative study of the Declarations of Rights in the American and French Revolutions and seeks to explain, with reference to contemporary documents, why the French recognized an inalienable, human right to property whereas the Americans did not.

Contents:

1 Plato's 'communism', Aristotle's critique and Proclus' response 6

2 Plato's 'communism': from late antiquity via Islamic Spain to the Renaissance 31

3 Renunciation and communality: thinking through the primitive Church 59

4 The poverty of Christ: crises of asceticism from the Pelagians to the Franciscans 84

5 The state of nature and the origin of private property: Hesiod to William of Ockham 107

6 The state of nature and the origin of private property: Grotius to Hegel 136

7 Property as a legal right 177

8 Property as a human right 204.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521876773

052187677X

9780521700238

052170023X

OCLC:

166626211