Aristotelian Perspectives on Economic Thought. What Could We Learn From Him for Today?

RICARDO F. CRESPO

Middleburg (Holanda)

Jornada; Aristotelian Encounters; 2007

Roosvelt Academy

A renewed current concern with Aristotle’s thought about the economic aspects of human life and society can be observed. Aristotle has dealt with the economic issues in his practical philosophy. This means that he considered ‘the economic’ as imbedded in a moral and political frame. This vision is coherent with a specific anthropological, metaphysical and epistemological conception. Oikonomiké, the term used by Aristotle, is not a noun but an adjective. Thus, its correct translation is neither “economy” nor “economics”, but “economic” (the adjective) or “the economic” (an incomplete expression which immediately raises the question “the economic what?”). This etymology may shed light on the notion of the economic. In the Aristotelian metaphysics, nouns express entities or beings, both self-sufficient beings or things and accidental properties of them. Instead, adjectives almost always express accidents, beings existing in others (either substances or other accidents). The former analysis suggests that the economic is not a simple reality but something complex instead. The paper shows that oikonomiké is a homonymous term, which focal meaning is economic action, the use of what is needed for achieving the Good Life. The other derivative meanings of the economic are a capacity, a habit and a practical science. Practical science – the science dealing with human action – has its difficulties due to its subject matter. Besides, we have to add the difficulties stemming from the complex character of the economic: an action in which beliefs, perceptions, thoughts, capacities, habits, all mental realities greatly influence. From these four meanings – a human action, a capacity, a virtue and a science – the paper extracts lessons for today concerning the fields of ethics, politics and economic policy, and economic science.