kant's philosophy of law is an extraordinary concatenation of errors all leading to each other, and he bases the right of property upon first occupation. how should the mere avowal of my will to exclude others from the use of a thing at once give me a right to it? clearly such an avowal itself requires a foundation of right, instead of being one. the so-called right of preoccupation, according to which, for the mere past enjoyment of a thing, there is demanded the further recompense of the exclusive right to its future enjoyment, is morally entirely without foundation.
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