Quote:
A lot of people think that they have the right to throw people out of their house if those misbehave.
Do you think that there are natural property rights?
|
First, I definitely agree there are LEGAL property rights...now, as for natural rights:
Defining "natural rights" is difficult.
I guess my theory best approximates what I'll call the "Might Makes Rights" (or perhaps the "Ability == Rights" theory. According to Hobbes, one has the natural right to seek one's own good. That essentially comprises the right to go wherever and do whatever--but others have the natural right to attempt to prevent my going wherever and doing whatever by whatever means they choose.
So to answer your question, I think everyone basically has unlimited "rights of property", which, since something can't really "belong" to everyone, means that there really is no natural right of property, just a right to go wherever and do whatever.
Obviously, if everyone practices these natural rights unfettered by morals or laws, this leads to an untenebly chaotic world, which is why we create moral codes and laws...and then continue refining them for many, many years until we have a workable system that provides such things as security and safety without abridging people's natural rights untenably. Sadly, we all have very different ideas about what constitutes "abridging natural rights untenably."
An idea that I pulled off wikipedia, apparently courtesy of Thomas Paine, is that a charter can't confer rights, because if it did, that implies that they can also be revoked, which makes them privileges rather than rights.