Western and Eastern Traditions

Specifically, recall the discussion there regarding changing conceptions of selfhood in both “Western” and “Eastern” traditions. Most briefly, just as strongly individual notions of selfhood correlate with strongly individual notions of privacy, so it appears that these notions further undergird and correlate with strongly individual notions of property – including intellectual property – as primarily an exclusive right held precisely by the individual as copyright holder. And, just as more relational notions of selfhood correlate with more inclusive or shared notions of privacy – such as group privacy or familial privacy – so these notions, as manifest here especially in Confucian and ubuntu traditions, further correlate with shared or inclusive notions of property. In this light, the widespread and largely accepted practices – however illegal – of file-sharing, especially among younger folk, does not necessarily mean that there is some sort of rise of unethical behavior among the youth. And/or it may be that such behavior further reflects these foundational shifts in our basic understandings of selfhood and identity – that is, precisely toward more relational selves for whom such sharing is directly coherent with more inclusive notions of property grounded in the good of the community.

Recall here, as well, the middle ground between these two positions staked out by notions of the self as a relational autonomy – that is, as a (more individual) freedom conjoined with relationality as also essential to our sense of self. It would seem that such a sense of self coheres especially well with various copyleft schemes of property as inclusive rather than exclusive. That is, these schemes do not, as we have seen, abandon the notion of individual property rights altogether – but rather transform exclusive conceptions to inclusive conceptions that include shared rights of access by a larger community.