Ownership And Self Identity Essay

599 Words2 Pages

What would you actually considered your stuff? Would you consider it being something that you can touch and show to people and prove it is yours. Well, Plato the famous astronomer, Aristotle, and Jean-Paul Sartre tell their opinions in what ownership is. For many centuries, prominent thinkers have pondered the relationship between ownership and the development of self identity. People never really think about what they own and what they have, but what do you actually own? What is actually owned what are possessions to people and to others?

Plato argues that owning something can be very damaging to someone’s character. When you own something and have control over it then it may make someone feel like they are different because of that item. “Plato argued that collective ownership was necessary to promote common pursuit of the common interest, and to avoid the social divisiveness that would occur when some grieve exceedingly and other rejoice at the same happenings”(Plato.stanford.edu). In this quote plato is saying that no matter what you got it can upset one person and make another …show more content…

If you say that something is yours and people don’t believe you than you would have to pull it out or pull out something to prove that you are not lying. When you have it in your hand and you payed for it then therefor it is yours nobody can really take it away from you unless you have made a deal to where someone could do that. Aristotle said that “When everyone has a distinct interest, men will not complain of one another, and they will make more progress, because when everyone will be attending to his own business”(Aristotle, Politics, 1263a). In this quote aristotle has explained how people need their possessions to show who they really are and what they can do. People owning things has been a way to show others what they are like without actually meeting that person

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