What do we own?

In my Modern European Political Thought class we a currently reading Nietzsche's Beyond Good & Evil. As I was catching up on some of the reading I came across an interesting quote, "a thought comes when 'it' wishes, and not when 'I' wish." After reading these words my mind fell through a series of logical conclusions that I would have to consider if I were to concede this point my made by Nietzsche. If I do not control my thoughts (when they come, how often they some, or what they are) can I really call them ‘my’ thoughts? Their inspiration is outside of myself, maybe a beautiful day a good book or a circumstance I find myself in which I have no control of. Often times I have gone somewhere private committed to solving a problem. When an answer would come to me, obviously in the form of a thought, I would feel really proud of my ability to problem solve. Thinking back to these events I wonder how much a role I played besides just taking the time to listen.

It could be said that although we do not have control of our thoughts it is our minds that have these thoughts and therefore we should be proud of our bodies and lay claim to whatever it produces. My initial question to those who believe this line of thought is what make’s something ours, why do we feel that we can lay claim to our bodies? It seems to me that since I did not make my body I have no claim to it and neither does anyone else to ‘their’ own or any other to ‘mine’.

So if we do not own ‘our’ bodies or thoughts, where does this leave us? It seems that from here we cannot conclude anything else but that no one owns anything. If we cannot lay claim to our bodies or thoughts than how can we possible lay claim to anything that comes from them?

So then, if own nothing why then is the western world so set on protecting ownership of private physical and intellectual property? Or an even better question, what should our response be? First I think that we need to stop claiming ownership of ideas. There is no such think as intellectual property. This truth functions in two ways; it restricts the initial receiver of the thought from laying claim but also all receivers following the initial receiver.

Secondly, if no one owns anything and nothing is owned by anyone then we must take care of all things in the same we would take care of something that another has put in our care. For example, a parent does not own their child nor does a child own themselves but it is clearly the responsibility of a parent to care for a child and when the child is put in the care of another that person should be considerate enough to care of said child in the best way possible.

To be honest, that’s all that has come to my mind. Again, I had no control of this inspiration I was just willing to take the time to listen and record what it is I heard.