A Critique of the Humean Justification of Private Property

Abstract

Hume contends that the only way to avoid destructive conflicts among people with infinite desires for scarce resources is to converge on some regulatory human conventions. In the Humean theory of property, avidity of individuals, which is defined as a kind of insatiable greed for wealth, cannot be eliminated. As such, a property system can appropriately regulate a society only if individuals tend to comply with property rules out of their avidity. Since the private property system enables individuals to pursue their love of material gain, it is in a complete harmony with human avidity. In this paper, I argue that even If it is assumed that avidity is a human universal, private property cannot be justified by appealing to avidity. Other property systems are capable of dealing with human avidity as well if the objects of avidity are not necessarily material goods.