A property right, the standard view maintains, is a proper subset of the most complete and comprehensive set of incidents for full ownership of a thing. The subsidiary assumption is that the pieces that are property rights compose the whole that is ownership or property, i.e., that property rights explain property. In reversing the standard view I argue that (1) a custom of intelligent and meaningful human action explains property and that (2) as a custom, property is a historical process of selecting actions conditional on the context. My task is to explain how a physical world of human bodies with minds that feel, think, know, and want gives rise to a custom of property with meaning and purpose. Property is primary because ideas are primary.

This article was written by Bart J. Wilson Smith, Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy & Economic Science Institute, Chapman University

He can be reached at bartwilson@gmail.com

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted re use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Wilson, B. 2022. The primacy of property; or, the subordination of property rights. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1 17. doi:10.1017 S1744137422000212