ABSTRACT
Some philosophers, including Aristotle, have viewed ethical theory as leading on to the study of politics; and many believe that justifications of social and political institutions require appeal to ethical principles. The case for unlimited acquisition begins with T. H. Green's account of human action. He believes that individuals act in order to achieve self-satisfaction, to bring about a state of affairs with which they have identified their good. Human beings are also reflective, capable of evaluating specific goals and revising their ideas about what will promote their well-being – that is, they can alter their conception of the good. Green considers an alternative in his brief discussion of a clan-system, which is built on social roles determined by kinship relations within a hierarchical organizational structure. On the argument he has been advancing, all have a right to appropriate; but Green notes that as things actually are in modern states, some have no real chance, or very little chance, to appropriate.
