B. The Use of the Thing

Through taking possession, the thing acquires the predicate of being mine, and the will has a positive relation to it. In this identity, the thing is equally posited as something negative, and my will, in this determination, is a particular will — need, inclination, and so forth. But my need, as the particularity of a will, is the positive factor which satisfies itself, while the thing, as inherently negative, exists only for it and serves it. – Use is this realization of my need through the alteration, destruction, or consumption of the thing, whereby its selfless nature is revealed, and it thereby fulfills its determination.

That use is the real side and actuality of property is what representational thought has in mind when it regards property of which no use is made as dead and ownerless, and, in the case of its unlawful seizure, cites as grounds the fact that it was not used by the owner. – But the will of the owner, by virtue of which a thing is his, is the first substantial ground, of which the further determination, use, is only the appearance and particular mode, subordinate to that universal ground.