By Design

A few weeks ago on this show, we spoke to the builder Bob Day about private property as not just a roof over your head but the cornerstone of democracy. This prompted a listener to write in and tell us how unimpressed he was by this idea, 'Property rights were the result of the theft of the commons by the powerful, not a generous gift to society.' Can this be true? To discuss the origins of private property, we talk to Dr Andrew Fitzmaurice, Senior Lecturer In History at the University of Sydney.

Examine the contention of the eighteenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the legal theorist Pufendorf that the essential idea here is that taking something is not theft when everybody agrees that it is yours. Then we consider the views of the late seventeenth-century English philosopher John Locke, who held that land is converted into property by the activity of tilling it, rather than simply hunting and gathering on it? We also look at how this relates to property in Australia and the notion of 'terra nullius'.

Guests

Andrew Fitzmaurice

Further Information

Andrew Fitzmaurice's web page at Sydney University

Presenter

Alan Saunders

Producer

Janne Ryan

Radio National often provides links to external websites to complement program information. While producers have taken care with all selections, we can neither endorse nor take final responsibility for the content of those sites.