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Gov 1082: What is Property?

Politeia (Plato’s Republic - Cicero called it Republic 300 years later)

• Constitution, citizenship, and way of life are all translations of politeia (compared
to politeia is to city as the soul is to the body).
• Happens in Piraus, an Athenian port at some point during the Peloponnesian War
(maybe 20 years before its end) but not written until around 380-370 BCE.
• The disaster of 404 BCE, Athens lost the war and Sparta imposed very harsh
terms on them and the city, Piraus, is destroyed (despite it’s wall and protection,
etc.).
• 30 tyrants rule for one bad year (Sparta replaces democracy with 30).
• Plato was a critic of democracy but (with uncles in the 30 and asked to be
in it himself) a larger critic of the 30.
• Athens goes from being world power to third rate.
Different b/c the Bible talks about the national world views of Israel. Plato is writing to
challenge the orthodoxy of Athens and explain what went wrong. Athens had a
policy/law called epidikasia which stipulated that when a daughter inherited property
from a son-less father, the nearest male relative had an absolute right to marry her
even if she were already married (she had to get divorced). Athens is divided by 4 tiers
group determined by amount of property owned (lowest group, thetes, not allowed to
hold public office). Right to make wills to leave property to whomever they wished
(wills were previously only for people without sons in positions to inherit), they could
sell land to whoever they wished, owning land had strong property rights (few
caveats), resident aliens needed to permission to own land but everyone else had a
right and each new ruler declared that private property stays with its owner and rights
will be protected.
Plato’s Critique
Plato says that the rights of alienation led to Athens’s demise. Aristotle says that Plato
advocates a community of women, children, and property. Plato only advocates this for
the guardians (upper tier of society). Says not allowed to have private property beyond
what is necessary. Proverb, Among friends all things are in common. Plato says in Book
4 that the guardians how to make sure there isn’t extreme wealth or extreme poverty
and that it would be a real city (not two cities armed against each other). For regular
people (not guardians) there are limits (number of children to prevent growth and
therefore war). Socrates objects to the get what you deserve theory of property. He
says that giving a crazy man back his knife would be doing harm. Thacimicus says that
advantage/interest of the stronger defines his theory of justice (legal
positivism/relativism). Epíkouroi, “auxiliary” is what the non-ruling guards are called by
Plato, supposed to assist. He calls the rulers proper according to independent objective
reason and nature. He says being a ruler is an expertise/art like navigating a ship and
some people are simply right or some are wrong. Plato says Athens went down
because democracy is an unjust form. The injustice is that people are required to do
something they are not suited to do. The three parts of the soul, rational, spiritual, and
the repetitive? Philosophers and kings must be one and the same for a city to be just.
In Book 8, he says that eventually the city would notice corruption in the ruling class.
Some rulers shouldn’t be rulers, timocracy would lead to ruling by love of honor?
People would have the auxiliary ruling because they confuse honor for justice. He says
that the spread of private property would lead to people loving money instead of honor
or justice (oligarchy). When that happens, the city has people who are radically poor
(alienated of their money) and very rich (living off of money they have but providing
Gov 1082: What is Property?

no service. Being drones). When people think what they really need is money the poor
will rise up against the rich and the poor will rule and everyone will do whatever they
want (or is voted into law). This is worse because now everyone wants money and it’s
extended to entire city making war necessary. All is worse because they don’t defer to
the wiser, better rulers.

Plato asks not what they have worked for or not worked for, what they want, what they
are willing to sell and buy but what is good for people and what they (the polis) should
have. First there should be a good city (one in which reason rules, the best and wisest
men rule). Then says what arrangement of property will give us the rule of the wise
(guardians living with all things in common among friends (no private families,
property, interests) and will have total unity. The rulers will be among them). For
everyone else, there can't be extremes. In a good city there are no laws (says Plato in
the statesmen) because laws are general and tell us more or less (inherently inferior to
wise men who can deliver the just outcome in every single instance). Plato, in the
laws, describes the next best thing to the best thing. Describes a flood that wipes
everyone out making them have to build a city from scratch. Says that Sparta had
given each equal land and managed to maintain better mores than Athens. The first
son inherits (keeping all land intact, 5800'ish people), extra sons are put in families
without sons or become tradesmen without land or are sent off to colonies, women
don't inherit or get dowries. No gold and silver is allowed or lending in interest.
Moneymaking is defeated (banaus'ia, hired labor). Four classes are created with the
minimum being granted enough and the top class can't have more than four times the
bottom class's wealth (trade is not done with foreigners). Aristotle was a tutor to
Alexander the Great and student of Plato.

Aristotle asks, what is the nature of human beings (not a descriptive account of human
nature, not comparatively, etc.). He means Nature as how we ought to behave and not
how we actually act. The end of human beings, the perfected version, fully developed,
is the telos (acorn's is an oak tree), is reason. This means that humans must live in the
polis. The excellence of reason is (virtue or aret'e) philosophy, metaphysics, etc. and
also applied knowledge (one peg below it), or prudence, which is the bridge between
intellectual virtues (the mean between two vices) and moral virtues. We identify the
mean in specific situations and so realizing our highest end necessitates a community
of other people to test our high faculties.
Aristotle says that politics is a practical science. The natural slave is not rational
enough to rule or be political and so is justified as being ruled for his own good (if he
ruled himself, he would be ruled by the passions and live badly). Women have
rationality but it isn't strong enough in them to overcome the other passions and so
can't rule. The right constitution depends on the distribution of rationality in the polis
(one person is greatest = Monarchy, a few people = aristocracy, everyone equally =
constitution/republican) (better than tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (best kind of
democracy is agricultural democracy where people are only allowed to have so much.).
Aristotle asks if it is good to acquire property. He says that acquiring property for self
sufficiency is like an art because it is a part of household management (the whole is
prior to the individual, polis before household). He says that moneymaking for the sake
of moneymaking is not an art (it doesn't seek an object which is why it's self
destructive...). He attacks usury (using money to create money) because it's separated
from created goods and necessities and he stigmatizes it. Property is to serve a
Gov 1082: What is Property?

purpose but not gotten just to get it which is perverted.


Book 2, Aristotle looks at Plato's Republic and communal property is a poor solution
because people will inevitably fight over whose wife is whose. He says that it will lead
to indifference, incest and other social crimes. The society will lack personal
responsibility (common property and children neglected). We are robbed of a certain
kind of pleasure when we don't have personal private property because self-love is not
a vice when tempered (narcissism and self-hate are vices). He says to exercise virtue,
you must have property (liberality in between avarice and careless, you can't be
philanthropic without private property).
In The Laws, Aristotle straw-mans Plato's argument (says he doesn't deal with
population growth or extra people). Aristotle says that Plato said that the top class (of
four) can have 5 times the poorest class earns. Aristotle says we need to have more
than the minimum so we can use it to live more than temperately but liberally also.
In Book 4, Aristotle says that moneymaking should be seen to have a mean,
somewhere between the two extreme vices. If you have too much you'll think you
don't need to be ruled and if you have too little you'll think you can't rule (but it has
nothing to do with money but with reason) and so rule by the middle class is best. To
make sure people have the right amount, we look at the Spartan constitution where
women can inherit and gain husbands money and be rich. He says that we have to rig
inheritance to prevent huge holdings. He says that banausoi people shouldn't be
citizens. He says that the perfectly just city should expel and ostracize people who get
really rich and a better city would use the legislator to prevent it from happening.
(book 6, different forms of democracy).
In Aristotle's best Constitution, everyone is given two equal plots of land, one in and
one out of town, everyone has an equal level of high rationality and so can rule and be
ruled equally and so they will all be friends.
Plato and Aristotle agree that a good society is an objective question that looks to
reason to help us live well. Private property claims that hurt the polis make no sense to
Aristotle.

Cicero a Roman Citizen, a new man (a family that had never held Roman public office).
Rome is fiercely militarist city based on glory (kl'eos, what's heard about you, fame
and your reputation). Also important is freedom, liberty, not being a slave (different
from Plato and Aristotle). Justice is giving to each person his due. Ager Publicus (public
land) takes land that is for everyone and a tithe is paid to the city for farming it. The
rich families acquire the lands and stop paying regular tithes. Agrarian Laws are
proposed to redistribute the laws and people say that this is the beginning of the end
(led to factions, civil war, etc.). Cicero says this is the failure of justice (theft).
Says that long occupation is fair way to acquire property (a farm in your family for long
time), and conquest (war is part of glory and a virtuous life), and barter, purchase,
etc., etc. Says that the city's purpose is to protect private property. Cicero agrees that
nature makes people come together (benefit from cooperation, enjoying each others'
company) but that the coercive power of the state is not justified by it. Cicero
emphasizes “fides” or good faith and the responsibility of the res publica to enforce it
(we don't own stuff because the polis says so but we have claims to our property,
rights against the polis). Cicero says what is just and what is useful/pragmatic are not
inconsistent. He says that doing the wrong thing, broadly thought out, is never useful
(world is providential).
Gov 1082: What is Property?

Plutarch tells the story of the brothers, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus (the former
gentle and level headed, the latter not). He says that the poor, once driven off the land
by the sneaky and lying (false personages) rich, were less enthusiastic about joining
the military and raising children. The rich colluded with gangs of foreigners to become
more rich, and the agrarian laws are mentioned as “rectifying this evil.” Instead of
saying the man met resistance, he says “men of influence opposed his measures.” The
parties of the rich stole the voting urns on the day of the election. Tiberius had
Octavius step down after almost voted out of office (someone got their eyes snatched
out!). The rich aristocrats and landholders hated Tiberius (the wouldn't give him a tent
to do his work and fixed his daily spending at 40 cents). One of his friends died and
had spots all over him leading people to think he was poisoned. Tiberius wanted to
distribute the inheritance of a king to his subjects but to the poor who got the little
pieces of land so they could put equipment on it. A man in the senate was very upset
and compared Tiberius to his father (how one walked down a dark street and the other
down a lit one). He stubbed his toe in the doorway off his house (taking the nail off)
and a rock fell off the roof where the raves were (landing on his foot) leaving it
bleeding badly but he still went to the voting thing. He put his hand on his head to tell
someone afar that the rich had decided to kill him themselves and someone ran and
told the senate that Tiberius wanted a crown so people decided that it was time to kill
the tyrant. They killed him and a bunch of others (a mob of less than 3,000) and threw
their bodies in the river against his brother's wishes. Plutarch emphasizes Tiberius's
and Caius's motives for running for office (empathy and a dream from Tiberius). He
compares Agis and Cleomenes (Greeks) to Tiberius and Caius (Romans?). The first two
weren't given a proper education and upbringing like the second two.

Appian on the Civil War


Appian details the relations between the Plebeians and the Senate of Rome
(antagonistic but not violent and with much respect). He talks about Cesar's rise to
power and assassination. He blames the fall of the Roman empire (or it's slight demise)
on "the measureless ambition of men, their dreadful lust of power, their unwearying
perseverance, and the countless forms of evil." It was torn apart by men wanting to be
rulers and have more land and be greedy power addicts.
The problem in Italy was that Rome wanted to give land to the Italians to work and to
be prosperous so they could have more allies at home but the rich took most of the
land and used slave labor instead of free men and so Italians dwindled. They passed a
law saying people couldn't own more than 330 acres (500 jugeras). He tells about the
struggle between the rich who had good reasons to want the land and the poor who
did also. Then there was Tiberius and Octavius fighting over it. Tiberius was killed for
trying to enforce the Agrarian Laws and Scipio was killed (husband of deformed and
childless sister of Gracchi brothers) for trying to repeal it.

Appian is not a philosopher. He worries about the rise of slaves and the poverty of the
war veterans. He endorses the Licinian Law (the maximum share a person can have is
500 acres). He disagrees with Cicero's decision.
Plutarch says that Tiberius and Caius tried to fix the situation little by little but the
other two understood that too much wealth, no matter how they got it, is in itself a
problem.
Gov 1082: What is Property?

Matthew
10:9-10, (and Mark 6:6-12) Jesus tells the disciples not to take any gold, silver or
copper, a second coat, etc. when they go ministering and healing the sick. Go as
wanderers and God will provide.
19, (and Luke 18:21-29) Jesus tells the rich young man to sell all his things, give it to
the poor and follow Jesus. The man leaves heavy hearted. Jesus says it is easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God. He tells the disciples that anyone who left brothers and sisters, children, parents,
or land to follow him will have their reward in heaven. (If you wish to be perfect (Greek
téleíos meaning complete and lacking nothing) says Matthew (makes it seem above
and beyond). In Luke it says there is one thing you lack (incumbent upon everyone).
Luke
6, Jesus says blessed are the needy and hungry and alas for the rich and happy. He
says to turn the other cheek, give him your tunic also, don't demand back what was
taken from you, lend without expecting to be paid back in full, etc.
6:46-49, Jesus says those who listen to him and follow are like the guy who builds his
house on rock (river flood) and not sand.
16, Jesus says that you can't serve two masters (God or Money) making the pharisees,
who loved money, angry.
19, Jesus tells the story of the man who left to become King and returned to have his
servants multiply the money he left them in charge off except for one who kept it
wrapped up and was yelled at for it.
Acts
2:44-47, The believers held everything in common, sold their possessions and gave
everything to the apostles. They were communists!
4:32, Communists! They lived like Plato's guardians.
5, A Husband and Wife sells their things but holds back some of it from the commune
and when Peter admonishes them they drop dead and are buried. Sin was lying.
2 Corinthians
8, Peter praises the generosity of the Church of Macedonia. Says somewhere that the
aim is equality. People should only have as much as they need (give your extra
depending on how much other people have or need).
1 Timothy
6, The love of money is the root of all evil. Religion yields high dividends but only to
those who are content with what they have. The moral imperative is to give
generously (later followed in the City of God by Augustus even though he opposes the
Agrarian Laws even though he defends taking land to give to the Catholics because
the sovereign is the source of property rights).
James
5, the rich are condemned.

Cicero says conquest is a legitimate way of acquiring land but only when fighting a just
war against injustice, etc. He says the state is not the source of property but exists for
the purpose of protecting it.
In the Bible, property is problematic in that it warps your priorities (two masters), the
love of money is the root of all evil, don’t store up treasures for yourself here on
heaven but instead up in heaven, God will provide for you (the lilies don’t work for a
living but there they are, same with birds). Avarice of rich man who ignored Lazarus is
criticized.
Gov 1082: What is Property?

Augustine
The City of God Against the Pagans
Possessions are not the bad thing only greed. Riches bring pain and sadness
(foolishness and hurtful lusts). Talks about Job in the Bible and how he was happy to do
God's will. The emphasis is on the riches of the longer eternal afterlife and not this life.
Pragmatically its smarter and wiser to store your goods in heaven and build up
treasure there where they can't rust or rot. He mentions the mistake of the Gracchi in
trying to enforce the agrarian laws.
On Tractates on John
He makes crap up as he goes along in defending the confiscation of non-catholic land
(heretic Donatists) and says property rights come from the King.

Ambrose
On the Duties of the Clergy
He gets into the scripture and says that God and nature made the land for all of us and
so it is common. He says the Stoics borrow from the Bible to justify subordination of
man to other men and he says that woman was made to be man's helper and that we
should all help each other. He says that justice and goodwill are what hold a society
together. Says that greed weakens and lessens the power of the virtue of justice.
Naboth the Jezrahelite

For the Franciscans, the oath of poverty doesn't entail simply not having property.
Dominium (right over property) is related to dominus (master) and so the idea of
mastery is incompatible with the apostolic life. Says that means we are lords and have
our own will but our will is sinful and so we should be servants and give our will to God.
To own something means to be a master which means to follow one's own will which is
to sin. Says poverty means having not little but no property at all (not even communal
property), so he says they have to (grounded in the Roman law, ius naturale (no
property) and gentium (civil positive law)) use possessio which is the right to use
something in a common way but not own it.
The pope says there is proprietas (like dominium), usufructus (like possessio) and ius
utendi (just using it) because they all amount to making a claim against other people.
Pope says simplex usus facti is the only way that is ok (Franciscans use food like a
horse oats, using it without a defensible claim in court).
Aquinas and Roman lawyers started to question this order. They said dominium utile
(property rights that come through the use of a thing), is a property right that exists
even in nature where the Franciscans operate. Aquinas says that property rights are
justified because, like Aristotle says, nature dictates that property rights exist because
people need them to fulfill their nature and live well. In an emergency, when life is in
danger, a person has the right to take anything from anyone, because property exists
for perpetuation and so shouldn't be the cause of death. He says if no one owns
anything no one will take care of it. Aquinas gets his argument stated as orthodoxy
within a century by a pope.
Ockham wants to say that there is no dominium in nature (presupposes a claim and
institutions like a court or state, etc. to vindicate the claim).

Italian city-states in the 12th and 13th centuries get their independence and
Gov 1082: What is Property?

become self-governing. As the holy Roman Empire gets weaker with time they are
ruled by merchants. Florence is mos important. Governed without princes or respect to
the Holy Roman Empire. Most other cities (besides Florence and Venice) had developed
principalities. Dante talks about a life so tranquil and lovely that there is no room for
wealth or luxury. Having more than you need was suspicious and unchristian. The
cities use theoretical insight from ancient Rome (Cicero) to justify their lifestyles. Living
without dependence on others they were free, with agency and were capable of virtue
(greatness).
Petrarch was living in a non-self-governing city (he was under a Lord) and wrote a
humanist letter on how to rule. He agrees with Cicero that the just and the
useful/helpful are coinciding things. A prince should be just, should be loved and not
feared (they should be virtuous), etc. Fear is the emblem of cruelty and brings
uneasiness and a likely violent death. The object is glory. The good thing is justice,
which is giving what is due, which is protecting private property. Says the king
shouldn't confiscate land for redistribution but should rely on voluntary charity.
Bruni says that Cicero was the great opponent of the agrarian laws (this
plague/disaster of the Republic). Bruni is writing in the style of praise modeled after
someone else. Florence was founded by Rome (when it was still a free city) which was
the greatest city in history, Florence has inherited these characteristics (like it's
offspring that gets the empire so all the world is Florence's and any war it wages is
just). Florence is great b/c it's Roman and a republic (commitment to virtue, liberty and
justice). The private wealth of its citizens and the magnificence attest to its glory and
greatness.
He began his career as a papal secretary (laymen, trained humanist). Miser
preaching against avarice and the very generous man encouraging people to be a
miser. The problem with avarice is that it invites crime. It tends to the disturbance of
private property. The fall of the republic was due to the avarice of the plebs trying to
redistribute (not the encroaching rich). Republican government later goes on to
collapse! Later people ask what went wrong.

Machiavelli! - Discourse (written between 1515-1519 he writes about the republic he


misses)
One man gets so rich he becomes Prince of Florence and rules. After him Lorenzo
the Magnificent rules until his deal in 1492, after which the princes struggle for 2 years
and are expelled and is taken over by a man that turns it into a Christian democratic
republic. He is later burned at the stake in a plaza. The republic is restored under a
man named chancellor. He appoints to foreign council of the city Niccolo Machiavelli.
He meets most of the heads of states of Europe during his tenure. The city of Florence
is besieged by the Spanish army. The meticcis are reinstated and the republic
dissolved. Machiavelli is accused of sponsoring a coup and his imprisoned, tortured
and exiled from the city when he writes The Prince advising the family on how to
govern Florence.
Machiavelli agrees with the Roman civic humanists that the goal of life is glory and
grandness and that true greatness can only be achieved by a free city, a Republic.
Monarchy/Tyranny, Aristocracy/Oligarchy, and Democracy/Anarchy (Constitutional
Government or Polity?). He says that there's a cycle (from politheus) of regimes. He
says to delay the inevitable they should use a Republic which uses the good balance of
the three. The kind of republic he says should be like Rome which is the perfect
republic (founded in a healthy direction and had good luck to evolve as it did). The
Gov 1082: What is Property?

democratic element, office of tribune, didn't exist before but after instituted helped. He
says that Sparta and Venice can have harmony/concord, etc. but that they want a
large government with armed citizens and so they want discord/division. By placing
them in tensions and tumult you keep the republic from tipping from the rule of the
many or the few (checks and balance). He disagrees that the just is good and useful
(like what Petrarch says about an unjust Prince). He agrees with Cicero that the
Gracchi were wrong and the agrarian laws were the source of the end of Roman liberty
but for different reasons. He says states should keep their citizens poor, not equal. He
says the ambition of the Gracchi were right because Rome had failed to keep the
citizens poor. He says they were wrong because they took a backward looking measure
that tried to deal with a problem head-on instead of trying to temper it (coming at it
obliquely instead of directly). He says that luxury makes people less likely to put glory
first like it should have. The umori? Private sects/parties that use private reputations
create clients and followings/bands/devotees of their own that are loyal to them and
not the city which leads to civil war and disbandment. Because Kosumo was so rich he
had everyone in his favor and when they tried to expel him it was wrong because the
wrong they had tried to fix through backward looking had become too entrenched
(you'd have to do a greater injustice to fix some injustice you missed a long time ago).
He says a good regime is such that a large accumulation of wealth cannot be possible.
He writes at the tail-end of the Renaissance which wanted to move on beyond pure
faith stuff and move back to classical texts, the active life instead of the contemplative
life.

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