Ancient Greek Philosophers on Trade, Business and Money

FAIN: FT-229420-15

Etienne Helmer
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus (San Juan, PR 00925-2512)

Summer reading and writing on Anthropology and History of Philosophy.

According to many historians of economic theory, the ancient Greeks had no strong and consistent thought on economics for lack of a scientific approach to economics in the modern sense of the word science. But this does not mean they did not have a valuable approach to economic phenomena and institutions. Historians' assertions to the contrary derive from the fact that they fail to seriously take into account that ancient Greek thought on economics rested on a consistent set of philosophical concepts and notions. Presenting an alternative view based on a delimited corpus of texts by ancient Greek philosophers or ancient Greek writers influenced by philosophers, my project is to evidence the existence and value of Greek philosophical theories on trade, business and money. This project aims at completing the first part of a broader project on ancient philosophical approaches to economics. This first part was dealing with Greek philosophical approaches to economics within the oikos.

Associated Products

D'une réciprocité l'autre: la specialisation des métiers et des fonctions comme principe d'unité politique dans la République de Platon (Article)
Title: D'une réciprocité l'autre: la specialisation des métiers et des fonctions comme principe d'unité politique dans la République de Platon
Author: Etienne Helmer
Abstract: Both Aristotle and Plato consider the economic exchange as one of the most basic social link. According to Aristotle though, the individual specialization of the tasks and functions Socrates advocates in the Republic in order to integrate these economic exchange into a political order, leads to the division of the city instead of unifying it. This article argues, on the contrary, that the city of the Republic owes its unity to the specialization of the tasks and functions. Far from being divisive, this principle adds a positive political reciprocity to the ambivalent and negative reciprocity Plato sees at work at the level of the economic exchange.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/archai/issue/view/1238/showToc
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Archai: On the Origins of the Western Thought
Publisher: Archai: On the Origins of the Western Thought

Platon et Aristote ou les pouvoirs politiques de la monnaie (Article)
Title: Platon et Aristote ou les pouvoirs politiques de la monnaie
Author: Etienne Helmer
Abstract: Plato and Aristotle, or the Political Power of Money Through close examination of texts by Plato and Aristotle, this article discusses the effects that money can have on the polis. For these philosophers, the function of money is not merely paying the price of things but also circulating justice and harmony throughout the polis. Plato makes money a factor of proportion that can be conducive to civic friendship, while Aristotle makes it the instrument of measure that makes the reciprocity through which true political community can be maintained possible. On the other hand, money is also understood as carrying the risk of injustice. Under the form of excessive prices, it can be a threat to the harmony and reciprocity that are necessary to the polis. Plato and Aristotle thus show under what conditions commercial trade can serve a legitimate political purpose, and how money is both the symbol and the instrument of such a purpose.
Year: 2015
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Revue du MAUSS
Publisher: La Decouverte

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