Are Patents and Copyrights Morally Justified? - Tom G. Palmer

No. 3] Are Patents and Copyrights Morally Justified? 887
A superficially similar, but in reality very different argument
based on personality, is offered by Hegel in his Philosophy of
Right. 78 Unlike von Humboldt’s appeal to the development of
personality, the Hegelian argument sees property not only as a
necessary condition for this development, but as the manifestation
of this development itself. In the Phenomenology of Spirit,
Hegel emphasized that it is through work that the spirit comes
to know itself. 79 In the Philosophy of Right, a treatise on law,
property fills the role of work. Notably, the discussion ofproperty
culminates in patents and copyrights. For Hegel, personality
forms the foundation of any system of rights: “Personality
essentially involves the capacity for rights and constitutes the
concept and the basis (itselfabstract) of the system ofabstract
and therefore formal right. Hence the imperative of right is:
‘Be a person and respect others as persons.’ “80
Personality must be translated from mere potentiality into
actuality, or, in Hegelian terms, from Concept (Begrij) to Idea
(Idee).
A person must translate his freedom into an external
sphere in order to exist as Idea. Personality is the first, still
wholly abstract, determination of the absolute and infinite
will, and therefore this sphere distinct from the person, the
sphere capable of embodying his freedom, is likewise determined
as what is immediately different and separable from
him. 8 ’
Hegel specifically eschews utilitarianjustifications for property,
for “[i}f emphasis is placed on my needs, then the possession
of property appears as a means to their satisfaction, but
the true position is that, from the standpoint offreedom, property
is the first embodiment of freedom and so is in itself a substantive
end,” 82
The metaphysical grounding of this theory of private property
is straightforward: “Since my will, as the will of a person,
78. See G. HECEL, Pnu.osopHv OF RIGHT (F. Knox trans. 1952).
79. See G. HEGEL,, PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT (A.V. Miller trans. 1977).
80. 0. HEGEL, supra note 78, at 87. Knox points to a similarity in the treatment of
Bildung (loosely translatable as “education” or “spiritual development”) in both von
Humboldt and Hegel. See id. at 815 n.58. The differenëeis that whereas von Humboldt
saw the role of the state in the process of Bildung as “negative,” that is, protecting
citizens from violence but otherwisekeeping out of the way, Hegel sees a positive role
for the state in this process. See id.
81. Id. at 40.
82. Id. at 42.