资本主义是一种建立在承认个人权利（包括财产权）基础上的制度，其中所有财产均为私人所有49。所有权的自由源于政教分离，以及随之而来的人的基本自由的发展。《源泉》的作者安·兰德1描述了私有财产所有权与政教分离之间的这种关系："当我说资本主义时，我指的是完整、纯粹、不受控制、不受管制的自由放任资本主义——国家与经济相分离，其方式和理由与政教分离相同"50。

Capitalism is a system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned49. Freedom of ownership resulted from the separation of church and state and the consequent development of the basic freedom(s) of man. Ayn Rand,1 author of The Fountainhead, describes this relationship between private property ownership and the separation of church and state: “When I say capitalism, I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated Laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church”50.

与资本主义相对的另一个极端是社会主义或共产主义，它只承认公有制或国家所有制。共产主义哲学家，尤其是马克思，批判了资本主义制度下的私有制，并认为这种所有制是社会一切罪恶的根源。社会主义一旦掌控一个社会，它的首要任务便是没收个人财产，并将其转为公共财产，由国家加以控制。共产主义者甚至否认人类对拥有财产的基本需要和渴望；他们声称，个人追求占有物质的欲望，不过是资产阶级心态及其对社会影响的反映。

The other extreme opposite to capitalism is socialism/communism which only recognizes the public or state ownership. Communist philosophers, especially Marx, criticized the private ownership under capitalism and considered this type of ownership to be the root cause of all evils in a society. When socialism takes over a society, its first task will be the confiscation of the property of individuals and to transfer it to public property under the control of the state. The communists go all the way to deny the basic human need and aspiration for ownership; they claim that the striving of individuals to own things is a mere reflection of the bourgeois mentality and influence over the society.

共产主义对私有财产的看法与人的天性相悖。人天生需要通过劳动并拥有财产来满足自身需求，因此追求财产的占有是自然而然的事。满足人的需要是不可回避、也不可忽视的事情。任何阻止人拥有财富的企图都与其天性相违；同样，任何将其所拥有的财富限制在某个数量之内的做法，也与其天性相悖。因此，阻挡人获取财富，或阻挡他为获取财富而付出的努力，都是违背自然的。社会主义之所以短命，一个显而易见的原因正是它与人类追求私有财产的天然冲动相冲突。

The communist view of private ownership contradicts the natural behavior of humans. It is part of man’s nature to work and possess property in order to satisfy his needs; hence, it is only natural to strive for the possession of property. Satisfying man’s needs is an inevitable matter that cannot be denied or ignored. Any attempt to prevent man from possessing wealth would be contradictory to his nature; similarly, any attempt to restrict his possession to a certain quantity would also contradict his nature. It would, therefore, be unnatural to stand between man and his acquisition of wealth, or to stand between him and his efforts to achieve this acquisition. One obvious reason for the short-lived socialism is its conflict with the human natural strives for private ownership.

占有与所有权并非如马克思主义者所说，是社会秩序的反映。恰恰相反，它是人与生俱来的内在生存本能的表现。社会以其全部观念、概念、秩序、传统和价值观，将这种占有的特性引向不同的方向。农业社会将占有本能导向对土地的所有权；狩猎群体将这种本能导向对弓箭及其他狩猎工具的所有权；工业社会则将本能中的占有特性导向对机器、工厂及其他生产资料的所有权。在所有这些情形中，社会并非如马克思主义理论家所宣称的那样，在个人身上创造出占有的爱；而是将这种爱引向这一方向或那一方向。

Possession and ownership is not a reflection of societal order as claimed by Marxists. Rather, it is a manifestation of the inner instinct of survival which exists within man, right at birth time. The society with all the ideas, concepts, orders, traditions, and values direct the possession quality into different directions. Agricultural societies direct the possession instinct to the ownership of land; hunting communities direct this instinct to the ownership of bows and arrows and other means of hunting; industrial societies direct the possession attribute of the instinct to own machines, factories, and other means of production. In all of these cases, the society does not create the love to own within individuals as proclaimed by Marxist theoreticians; rather it steers that love in one direction or another.

许多人,尤其是共产主义哲学家,所观察到的私有制所带来的问题,并不是源于私人占有本身,无论是对商品的占有还是对生产资料的占有。问题实际上出在把私有制视为社会中唯一的所有制形式上。公有制或国有制并不被资本主义的核心基础所承认。每当社会需要由国家拥有财产(例如土地、银行、工厂)时,便会爆发一场激烈的争论:一端是纯粹的资本主义者(自由放任资本主义的支持者),他们极力反对此类所有制;另一端是实用主义者,他们在危机面前允许国家所有制。最近的这场经济危机促使美国政府介入,并持有银行、保险公司和汽车工业的大部分股份。

The problems associated with the private ownership as observed by many, particularly the communist philosophers, do not arise from the private possession per se, whether the possession of commodities or possession of means of production. The problem actually arises from considering private ownership to be the only form of ownership in the society49. Public or state ownership is not recognized in the core foundation of capitalism. Every time a need rises for the state to own property (such as land, banks, factories), a big debate takes place; on one end, purist capitalists (supporters of laissez-faire capitalism) detest such ownership. On the other end, pragmatists allow state ownership in response to crisis. The most current economic crisis led the US government to intervene and own large portions of banks, insurance companies, and auto industry.

资本主义者否认公共财产或国家财产，其依据是他们前面所论述的社会观。这种观点认为，社会是由个人组成的，个人可以尽可能自由地生活、拥有财产、发表言论并自主行事。因此，按照这种观点，公共财产毫无意义。然而，社会并不仅仅是一群个人的集合。除了个人之外，社会结构还包括把人们联系在一起、赋予社会独特形态的各种关系与制度。这种社会观又产生出社会中另外两个不同的实体：作为整体的公众，即由各种联系和关系构成的群体；以及国家，它通过社会的法律与秩序来维持这些关系和联系。个人、公众和国家这三个实体各自都有其特征、需要、利益和行为方式。

The Capitalists’ denial of public or state property is based on their view of the society as discussed earlier. This view considers the society to be composed of individuals who are allowed to live, own, speak, and behave as freely as possible. Hence, the public property under this view is meaningless. The society, however, is not merely made of group of individuals. The society structure includes, besides the individuals, the relations and the systems that link the people together and provide the society its own distinct shape. This view of the society gives rise to two other distinct entities in the society: the public as a whole with the various types of links and relations and the state which maintains these relations and links through the law and order of the society. Each of these entities—the individual, the public, and the state—has its own characteristics, needs, interest, and behavior.

个人对食物、饮水、安全、住所、健康、休息等方面有需求。他需要获取并拥有满足这些需求的手段。个人的利益通过个人财产所有制得到最好的保障。公众整体对凝聚力、安全、团结等方面有需求。公众需要获取并拥有满足这些需求的手段；公共利益则通过公共财产所有制得到最好的保障。国家作为一个整体，对稳定、安全、维持秩序、保护、平衡的建立以及其他方面有需求。国家必须获取并拥有满足其需要的手段。因此，资本主义财产观的主要问题在于，它只承认个人的私有财产。共产主义者犯了同样的错误，只不过他们只认可公有制，否认私有制；他们允许国家以公众代表的身份占有财产。事实上，共产主义者认为国家在社会中只是暂时存在的；在共产主义的高级阶段，国家应当消亡，唯一留存的财产便是公共财产。

The individual has needs for food, drink, safety, shelter, health, rests, and others. He needs to acquire and possess the means to satisfy these needs. The interests of the individuals are best served by the individual property ownership. The public as a whole has needs for coherency, security, unity, and others. The public needs to acquire and possess the means to satisfy these needs; the public interests are best served through the public ownership of property. The state as a unit has needs for stability, security, order maintenance, protection, balance creation, and other needs. The state must acquire and possess the means to satisfy its needs. Therefore, the main problem with the capitalist view of ownership is that it recognizes only the private ownership of individuals. The communists made the same error, except that they approved only the public ownership and denied the private ownership; they allowed the state to own in its capacity as a representative of the public. In fact, the communists believe that the state has a temporary existence in the society; at advanced stages of communism, the state should dissolve, and the only property that remains is that of the public.

当社会中的每个主体都侵犯其他主体的产权时,问题就会出现。例如,当个人的财产在国有化的名义下被公众和国家没收时,便开始出现欺诈、腐败和生产力低下等问题。当本应归公众所有的财产被个人占据时,欺诈、贫困和垄断等问题便开始显现。当国家财产被个人占据时,国家便依赖个人的财富并陷入债务之中;结果,国家的政治决策越来越偏向那些为国家提供资金的人。这种现象会导致压迫、腐败以及法律与秩序的丧失。

Problems occur when each entity in the society violates the property rights of the other entities. For example, when the property which belongs to individuals is confiscated by the public and state under the umbrella of nationalization, problems begin to surface: fraud, corruption, and lack of productivity. When the property which should be owned by the public is overtaken by individuals, the problems of fraud, poverty, and monopoly begin to surface. When the state property is overtaken by individuals, the state becomes dependent on the wealth of individuals and falls into debt; as a result, the political decisions of the state become more biased towards those who finance the state. This phenomenon leads to oppression, corruption, and a loss of law and order.

这一论证得出的主要结论是：私有财产在社会中是一个有效的概念；然而，这种所有权并非绝对自由的。私有制应当被限定在一定范围之内，这一范围受到公有制与国有制范围的限制和约束。

This argument leads to the main conclusion that private ownership is a valid concept in the society; however, this ownership is not absolutely free. Private ownership should be limited to the scope of private ownership which is limited and restricted by the scope of the public and the state ownership.

将私有财产国有化以及将公共财产私有化，都是适得其反的做法，并且侵犯了个人的权利和公众的利益。国有化导致对私有财产的非法限制，并产生许多问题，其中最轻微的也是腐败和生产力下降。另一方面，公共财产的私有化则剥夺了社会中弱势群体获得食物、医疗、教育和安全等基本需求的保障。

Nationalization of private property as well as privatization of public property are counterproductive and constitute an invasion to the rights of individuals and to the interest of the public. Nationalization leads to illegal restriction of private property and creates a myriad of problems, the least of which is corruption and diminished productivity. Privatization of public property, on the other hand, deprives the less fortunate in the society from securing their basic needs for food, health, education, and security.

正确组织所有权的方式，是为每一类主体界定其所有权的范围：个人、公众和国家。应当明确划定这三类主体所有权之间的界限。需要注意的是，界限决定的是每类主体所拥有的所有权性质，而每一范围内的所有权数量则无关紧要，不应加以限制。根据条件或危机在三类主体之间转移所有权是不可取的。事实上，在危机压力下将私有财产的所有权转归公有或国有，会导致这样的局面：国家和公众成为本应只归个人所有的财产的所有者，而个人却成为本应只归公众所有的财产的所有者。

The proper way of organizing the ownership is to define the scope of ownership for each entity: the individuals, the public, and the state. A clear borderline between the ownership of these entities should be well established. Note that the borderlines define the type of ownerships for each entity; the quantity of ownership within each scope is irrelevant and should not be restricted. It does not pay to transfer ownership between the three entities based on conditions and crisis. In fact, the transfer of private property ownership to public or state ownership under the pressure of crisis leads to the situation where the state and public become the owners of property that should be owned only by individuals, and the individuals become the owners of property that should be owned only by the public.

或许伊斯兰政治经济学最重要的特征在于，它明确界定了三种所有制的范围。此外，它禁止在任何情况下将一种所有制转变为另一种。伊斯兰经济学中的所有制将在本书第二部分作进一步讨论。

Perhaps the most important characteristic of the Islamic political economy is that it clearly defined the scopes of the three types of ownership. It further prohibited the transfer of one type of ownership into another no matter what the conditions are. The ownership under Islamic economics will be further discussed in the part 2 of this book.

总而言之,资本主义及其政治经济学建立在三项主要原则之上:相对稀缺性、效用与交换价值,以及价格机制,其中价格机制是这一基础的基石。这些原则都包含在“私有财产所有权”这一核心概念之中,而该概念又源于政教分离的思想。这些原则以及私有制的基本观念都存在严重的缺陷与弊端,正如前面各节所讨论的那样。接下来,我们将探讨这些缺陷对社会福祉的影响。

In summary, capitalism and its political economy are built upon three main principles: relative scarcity, the benefit and exchange value, and the price mechanism, the price mechanism being the cornerstone of this foundation. These principles are wrapped within the main concept of “private property ownership” which in turn emits from the idea of the separation of church and state. These principles along with the basic idea of private ownership have serious flaws and defects as discussed in the preceding sections. Next, we will explore the impact of these flaws on the well-being of the society.