The Property Species Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind

What is property, and why does our species have it? In The Property Species, Bart J. Wilson explores how humans acquire, perceive, and know the custom of property, and why this might be relevant to understanding how property works in the twenty-first century.

Arguing that neither the sciences nor the humanities synthesizes a full account of property, the book offers a cross-disciplinary compromise that is sure to be controversial: Property is a universal and uniquely human custom. Integrating cognitive linguistics with philosophy of property and a fresh look at property disputes in the common law, the book makes the case that symbolic-thinking humans locate the meaning of property within a thing. That is, all human beings and only human beings have property in things, and at its core, property rests on custom, not rights. Such an alternative to conventional thinking contends that the origins of property lie not in food, mates, territory, or land, but in the very human act of creating, with symbolic thought, something new that did not previously exist.
Written by an economist who marvels at the natural history of humankind, the book is essential reading for experts and any reader who has wondered why people claim things as "Mine!", and what that means for our humanity.

Bart J. Wilson is Professor of Economics and Law and Donald P. Kennedy Endowed Chair in Economics and Law at Chapman University.

Acknowledgments
Cover Art Note
Bibliographic Note
Prologue

PART 1 CLAIM AND TITLE: ORIGINS
1. The Meaning of Property in Things
2. All Animals Use Things, Specifically Food
3. Primates Socially Transmit Tool Practices, but Humans Share Meaning-Laden Customs
4. What Is Right Is Not Taken Out of the Rule, but Let the Rule Arise Out of What Is Right
5. The Custom of Property Is Physically Contained

PART 2 CLAIM AND TITLE: EFFECTS
6. My Claims Tie Together Modern Philosophies of Property Law
7. Disputes Explicate How We Cognize Property, Out of Which We Discover a Clear General Rule
8. The Results of a Test Are Agreeable to the Prediction
9. Economics Is Founded Upon Property, Not Property Rights

Epilogue
Cases Cited
References