ABSTRACT
Game theory suggests some reasons why the utility-maximizing preference orderings seem more "natural" than others—even though everyone knows that there are lots of non-utility-maximizing preferences out there in the real world. But feminist theory and narrative theory use storytelling to counteract the impulses that see in game theory. This chapter identifies the classical theory of property and the kinds of rational utility-maximizing preference orderings that the classical theory assumes in individuals. In a more sophisticated version of property, of course, see property as a way of defining relationships with other people. Common property is a kind of property system that often emerges when it is impractical or expensive to have individualized property in a given resource. For example, it might be awfully expensive to establish and police individual rights to the fish in a large lake.
