Dominion Over All the Earth, by Michael Pakaluk

‘Freedom Convoy’ Vows to Stay in Ottawa Until COVID Vaccine Mandates Lifted, by Megan Redshaw
February 2, 2022
Joe Biden Sends Millions to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz: “We Have Your Back”, by Steven Ertelt
February 2, 2022

*Image: Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks, 1846 [Philadelphia Museum of Art]

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, Feb. 2, 2022

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. …

Michael PakalukBlackstone, in his Commentaries, speculates that people avoid thinking about the basis for private property, because they are afraid that, if their claim to own something were examined closely, flaws would come to light.  Better not to upset a settled presumption.

He had in mind not simply mundane worries about liens, of the sort handled today by title agents.  He was concerned, conceptually, with how claims of ownership are ultimately anchored.

For there’s a regress problem.  Consider an asset, say, my smartphone, which I say I own “by right” on the grounds that it is part of something, which I acquired free and clear by a legal process from another entity (Verizon), which owned it “by right.” …

Continue reading >>>>