The Doctrine of Right, Duties and Religion for the Lower Class

[p. 235]

|235| omission of the violation of property. If right is therefore expressed as a positive command, this is only a form of expression, at the basis of which, in content, the prohibition always lies.

§ 8

The will, in subsuming a thing under itself, makes it its own. Possession is this being-subsumed of a thing under my will.

Explanation. Subsuming requires two pieces, something universal and something individual. I subsume something individual when I attribute to it a universal determination. This subsuming occurs in general in judging. What subsumes in judging is the predicate and what is subsumed is the subject. Taking possession is the pronouncing of the judgement that a thing becomes mine. My will is here what subsumes. I give the thing the predicate of being mine. The will is what subsumes for all external things, because it is in itself the universal essence. But all things that do not themselves relate to themselves are only necessary, not free. This relation therefore means that the human being has the right to take possession of all external things and to make of them something other than they themselves are. In doing so he treats them only in accordance with their essence.

§ 9

The thing that is first to be taken into possession must 1. be res nullius, i.e. must not already be subsumed under another will.

Explanation. A thing that already belongs to another I may not take into possession, not because it is a thing but because it is his thing. For if I take the thing into possession, I sublate in it the predicate of being his and thereby negate his will. The will is something absolute, which I cannot make into something negative.

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