Why Should Anyone Refrain From Stealing?

Abstract

This question was proposed by Max Black in the fall 1971 meeting of the Creighton Club for discussion during the spring 1972 meeting. Black said that the question was suggested to him by a dialogue in Iris Murdoch's novel A Fairly Honourable Defeat' in which a philosopher is unable to explain to his stereotypically contemporary, flower-childish son why he thinks that ripping off is censurable. Actually, the father delivers his explanation, not to the son, but to his sister-in-law's estranged husband (a caricature of the leftist bohemian who feels that stealing is wrong but is unable to convince his protege) with whom the boy has been living because father and son are estranged for the obvious reasons. Given the context from which the question emerged and, specifically, the manner in which it was posed, there is no compelling answer to it. The question-Why should I respect the property rights of the undifferentiated Other?is not so much a question as it is the expression of a complex, confused and distressingly prevalent attitude of alienation. Hence to theorize about the ground of property rights or to invoke prudential considerations based on legal sanctions is to misunderstand the essential issue and, more importantly, to compound the basic problem by further obscuring it and abetting the confusion. The economic status of the Anglo-American community is such that, for the most part, property ownership is so diffused that the bulk of our goods belong to no readily identifiable body,2 yet not so extended that the material