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In Private property, the author explores private property as a vital need of the soul, likening possessions to extensions of the body. Without a personal connection to objects, the soul feels isolated and vulnerable. Over time, humans naturally develop a sense of ownership over what they consistently use for work, pleasure, or survival, as exemplified by a gardener who comes to feel a profound bond with their garden. However, when legal property rights conflict with this psychological sense of possession, individuals face the painful threat of loss.
The text argues for widespread access to private property beyond consumable goods. Ideally, most people should own their homes, small plots of land, and, when feasible, their tools of labor. For peasants, land and livestock are particularly crucial as instruments of work. The principle of private property is violated, however, when land is worked by laborers under a manager for absentee urban owners who merely collect revenue. In such arrangements, none of those involved—laborers, managers, or owners—can truly claim a meaningful relationship with the land. It is wasted, not agriculturally but spiritually, as it fails to fulfill humanity’s inherent need for personal appropriation.
Between the extremes of the disconnected landlord and the self-sustaining farmer, many intermediary cases reveal varying degrees of disregard for this essential human need, leaving a gap between legal ownership and the soul’s deeper sense of belonging.
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