Thus everything has combined to give a
special bent to German speculation, which deprives it of its
claim to universal authority.
Why is possession protected by the law, when the possessor is not
also an owner? That is the general problem which has much
exercised the German mind. Kant, it is well known, was deeply
influenced in his opinions upon ethics and law by the
speculations of Rousseau. Kant, Rousseau, and the Massachusetts
Bill of Rights agree that all men are born free and equal, and
one or the other branch of that declaration has afforded the
answer to the [207] question why possession should be protected
from that day to this. Kant and Hegel start from freedom. The
freedom of the will, Kant said, is the essence of man. It is an
end in itself; it is that which needs no further explanation,
which is absolutely to be respected, and which it is the very end
and object of all government to realize and affirm. Possession is
to be protected because a man by taking possession of an object
has brought it within the sphere of his will. He has extended his
personality into or over that object. As Hegel would have said,
possession is the objective realization of free will. And by
Kant's postulate, the will of any individual thus manifested is
entitled to absolute respect from every other individual, and can
only be overcome or set aside by the universal will, that is, by
the state, acting through its organs, the courts.
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