Comments on: 46

By: Hegel (Simple)

Hegel (Simple) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:37:08 +0000

§ 46: Why there must be private property

In property my will becomes visible. But my will is the will of a single person. That is why property is first private property.

And common property?

That exists too. But if you can divide a thing, the community around it can dissolve. I decide myself whether I leave my share in it.

You cannot divide some things at all. Everyone uses air, light and sea at the same time.

Where there are exceptions:

Sometimes private property must step back. A foundation or a community can own property. The state can create or order such property. But this must never happen out of whim or for the advantage of single people. Only the rational order of the state can ground it.

The harsh verdict:

Plato wanted to abolish private property in his state. In doing so he wronged the person. He took away its capacity to have property.

The pious dream of a community of all goods also fails to understand freedom. Epicurus advised his friends against it. His reason: If you want to share everything, you distrust one another. And if you distrust one another, you are not friends.

Summary: Because the will is the will of a single person, there must be private property. Only the state can make exceptions, for rational reasons. Whoever abolishes private property wrongs the person.

By: Cross-reference

Cross-reference — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:49:10 +0000

Cross-reference: From the reading group’s excursuses (in German), the following belong here: The Positivity of the Christian Religion (1795/96): Community of Goods The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate: the fate of property

By: Eduard Gans (Additions)

Eduard Gans (Additions) — Wed, 29 May 1833 13:09:34 +0000

In property my will is personal, but the person is a this; hence property becomes the personal element of this will. Since I give my will existence through property, property must also have the determination of being this particular thing, of being mine. This is the important doctrine of the necessity of private property. If exceptions can be made by the state, it is nevertheless the state alone that can make them: frequently, however, particularly in our own time, private property has been restored again by the very same state. Thus, for example, many states have rightly abolished the monasteries, because a community ultimately does not have the same right to property as the person does.

By: Hegel (Notes)

Hegel (Notes) — Wed, 20 Nov 1822 08:08:32 +0000

More precise determination.
I as a single individual; – community my arbitrary will – Thus everyone enters the state – as free – as idea in itself – absolute presupposition of every state – individual society of free persons – my actuality is private property – the state need not concern itself with intention – otherwise – family entails, guardianship – into eternity – if free will of individuals, then it is torn apart by the caprice of one individual – Mortmain, community, church, has private property, is recognized
I private property – [according] to my right as a person
Surrender of the person – not [in] having no private property – but something higher –
α) Private property, because the person is single and I, as such, ought to be, to exist –
β) Family property, when and as long as there is a real patriarchal family, not once it has fallen apart –
γ) Community – churches, monasteries – essentially recognized by the state. – Property [of the] community is commonality – the well, pastures – not inalienable – dependence on purposes, on determination – precisely the moral element of the person. English church – especially in Ireland – measuring possession by purpose, not by abstract personality – This purpose is subject to higher judgment and determination.
α) Purpose is subject to a control, β) execution of this purpose
English church private property – property, why? because it was given to it by King William
Does not even proceed thus itself.
Slaves, serfs – are well provided for – Formerly public granaries – see Gagliani
Toward development – true reality, actuality of freedom – that its idea, concept and reality, have themselves become free.
Of the concept for itself (not yet here) – reality is personality
Man is what he is through his subjective will – subjective will is that of the person – personality is only actual will – subjective will is only actual will as property.
Property: collision, envy, enmity, strife, wars
Misery (apart from other passions) – falls away – people in peace and love – and all passions need property. Peace – of spirit alone – bringing itself forth out of infinite opposition.