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The Dimensions of Human Action and Property

Author/s: Garrick Small

Date Published: 1/01/2003

Published in: Volume 9 - 2003 Issue 4 (pages 348 - 360)

Abstract

This paper adds depth to the question of property theory in the face of recent challenges, including the demise of socialism as a global ideological political force and the rise of recognition of customary property rights. It examines the dynamics of human action using a sociological/anthropological approach to review the appropriate treatment of property within society. The modern Western tendency to reduce all politico/economic systems onto a single continuum between the ideologically Left and Right is reviewed and found to rest on a single anthropological assumption of dubious merit. There is ample evidence of other anthropologies that result in successful cultural institutions well beyond the modern left/right dichotomy. Cultural choice of anthropology is linked to beliefs regarding family, tradition and spirituality. Of these, spirituality is selected as the fundamental driver. Three dimensions of human action proceed from this analysis, the political/economic institutional dimension, the anthropological dimension and the spiritual, or metaphysical, dimension. Some implications for the institution of property are examined to conclude that combined, they provide a more robust framework for understanding property than the one-dimensional approach implicit in modernity.

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Keywords

Altruism - Anthropology - Economic Behaviour - Human Action - Metaphysics - Motivation - Political Economy - Property - Spirituality

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