[Revised entry by Jeremy Waldron and James Penner on January 21, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Property is a general term for rules governing access to and control of material resources and other things of value. Because these rules are disputed, both in regard to their general shape and in regard to their particular application, there are interesting philosophical issues about the justification of property. Modern philosophical discussions focus mostly on the issue of the justification of private property rights (as opposed to common or collective property), which refer to a system that allocates particular objects…

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