20. What is Acquired by Contract.
But what is that, designated as external, which I acquire by
contract? As it is only the causality of the active will of another,
in respect of the performance of something promised to me, I do not
immediately acquire thereby an external thing, but an act of the
will in question, whereby a thing is brought under my power so that
I make it mine. By the contract, therefore, I acquire the promise of
another, as distinguished from the thing promised; and yet something
is thereby added to my having and possession. I have become the richer
in possession (locupletior) by the acquisition of an active obligation
that I can bring to bear upon the freedom and capability of another.
This my right, however, is only a personal right, valid only to the
effect of acting upon a particular physical person and specially
upon the causality of his will, so that he shall perform something for
me. It is not a real right upon that moral person, which is identified
with the idea of the united will of all viewed a priori, and through
which alone I can acquire a right valid against every possessor of the
thing. For, it is in this that all right in a thing consists.
The transfer or transmission of what is mine to another by contract,
takes place according to the law of continuity (lex continui).
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