And if I could not do this, neither
could I call the apple or the spot mine.
B. I cannot call the performance of something by the action of the
will of another "mine," if I can only say "it has come into my
possession at the same time with a promise" (pactum re initum); but
only if I am able to assert "I am in possession of the will of the
other, so as to determine him to the performance of a particular
act, although the time for the performance of it has not yet come." In
the latter case, the promise belongs to the nature of things
actually held as possessed, and as an active obligation I can reckon
it mine; and this holds good not only if I have the thing promised- as
in the first case- already in my possession, but even although I do
not yet possess it in fact. Hence, I must be able to regard myself
in thought as independent of that empirical form of possession that is
limited by the condition of time and as being, nevertheless, in
possession of the object.
C. I cannot call a wife, a child, a domestic, or, generally, any
other person "mine" merely because I command them at present as
belonging to my household, or because I have them under control, and
in my power and possession. But I can call them mine, if, although
they may have withdrawn themselves from my control and I do not
therefore possess them empirically, I can still say "I possess them by
my mere will, provided they exist anywhere in space or time; and,
consequently, my possession of them is purely juridical.
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