Economics and the Public Good

John Antonio Pascarella

doi:10.5771/9781786608444

Summary

What is the nature of economics? How does economics relate to politics? Readers searching for the Ancient Greeks’ answers to these questions often turn to Aristotle, focusing on small portions of the Politics and Nicomachean Ethics that relate to money-making, exchange, and household management. While this approach yields some understanding of economics and politics, it fails to account for how Aristotle’s theoretical inquiry into these practical matters reflects the character of his political philosophy. According to Aristotle, the Ethics and Politics together form “the philosophy concerning the human things.” All human things begin with choice, an intellectual desire and need for the good. Aristotle’s care for this desire is the heart of his political philosophy. Through a close, literal, and careful reading of Aristotle’s political philosophy, readers discover the natural boundaries to economic and political life. Simultaneously theoretical and practical, Aristotle’s political philosophy offers readers a perspective of economics and politics that provides them the experience of the knowledge they need to desire and live within the limit of the good.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-78660-843-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-78660-844-4
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 392
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 12
1. 1. Natural Acquisition (Politics 1256a19–b26) No access
  2. The Natural Art of Exchange (Politics 1256b26–1257a19) No access
  3. Natural Exchange and Community (Politics 1257a19–30) No access
2. 1. Legal-Currency, the Money-Making Art, and Gain (Politics 1257a30–b4) No access
  2. Legal-Currency, the Art of Retail-Trade, and the Redefinition of Wealth (Politics 1257b5–31) No access
3. Law and the Contemplative Foundations of Arts and Communities (Politics 1253b1–23, 1255b37–1256a3, 1255a3–b4) No access
4. Use, Human Nature, and the Confusion between the Arts of Household Management and Money-Making (Politics 1257b32–1258a14) No access
5. Conclusion: The Money-Making Art’s Natural Boundary and the Good (Politics 1258a14–19) No access
1. The Art of Household Management, the Political Art, and the Idea of Subordinate Arts (Politics 1253b23–1254a17, 1258a19–34) No access
2. 1. Discovering Political Rule’s Free Character through the Natural Slave (Politics 1254a17–1255a3) No access
  2. Household Management, Political Rule, and the Human Need to be Free (Politics 1255b4–37) No access
  3. Nature as the Authoritative Source for Exchange (Politics 1258a34–b8) No access
3. 1. Nature and the Use of the Money-Making Art (Politics 1258b12–39) No access
  2. Philosophy, Money-Making, and the Tension between Economics and Politics (Politics 1258b39–1259a36) No access
4. Conclusion: Politics, Economics, and the Question of the Good (Politics 1282b14–23) No access
1. 1. Approaching the Human Need for the Good (Ethics 1094a1–26) No access
  2. The Political Art (Ethics 1094a26–1095a25) No access
2. 1. Intellect and Desire, Choice, and Human Nature (Ethics 1102a26–31, 1112a30–b12, 1113a15–b2, 1139a1–b5) No access
  2. Prudence and Seeking the Good Things with Truth (Ethics 1139b11–1140b30) No access
  3. The Intellectual Foundations of Politics and Economics (Ethics 1140b31–1142a30, 1143a35–b14) No access
3. Conclusion: Wisdom, Experience, and the Search for the Good (Ethics 1143b18–21, 1144a3–6, 1144b6–16, 1145a6–11) No access
1. The City and Self-Sufficiency (Politics 1252a1–1253a39) No access
2. 1. The Good and Potential Choiceworthy Lives for Happiness (Ethics 1095a14–1096a10) No access
  2. The Practical Good and Self-Sufficiency (Ethics 1096a11–1098b8, 1103b26–1104b3, 1138b20–34) No access
  3. The Good Things, Happiness, and Pleasure (Ethics 1098b9–1100b22, 1101a22–b9, 1102a5–26, 1112a13–17, 1113a9–14) No access
3. Conclusion: Pleasure, Friendship, and Aristotle’s Approach to a Free Politics and Economics No access
1. Hexis and Trust in Logos (Ethics 1105a17–19, 1105b9–18, 1145a15–27, 1145b8–14, 1146b24–35, 1147a10–b19) No access
2. Pleasure and the Good Things (Ethics 1147b20–31, 1148a4–32, 1148b15–24, 1149a34–1150a8, 1150b29–36, 1151a11–19) No access
3. The Political Philosopher’s Contemplation of Pleasures and Pains (Ethics 1152b1–1153b25) No access
4. Logos, Pleasure, and Human Nature (Ethics 1153b25–1154b34) No access
5. Conclusion: Political Philosophy, Pleasure, and Friendship’s Natural View of Economics No access
1. The Three Forms of Friendship and the Liberal Love of the Good (Ethics 1155b17–1159b21) No access
2. Friendship, the Decent, and the Natural Boundaries of Political and Economic Self-Sufficiency (Ethics 1123b14–21, 1124a1–20, 1129a23–b6, 1166a1–b2, 1168a28–1171a20, 1171b29–1172a15) No access
3. Conclusion: Friendship, Philosophy, and Freedom in Economics and Politics (Ethics 1163b1–5) No access
1. Justice, Gain, Pleasure, and the Decent (Ethics 1109a20–35, 1129a3–21, 1130a5–b5, 1134b18–1135a5, 1137a31–1138a3) No access
2. Pleasure and Logos (Ethics 1172a19–1173a5) No access
3. Pleasure and the Contemplative Life’s Self-Sufficiency (Ethics 1173b31–1174a12, 1174b14–23, 1175a3–1179a35) No access
4. The Natural Limits of Logos and Law (Ethics 1179a33–1180b7) No access
5. Conclusion: The Intellect, Justice, and the Search for the Good (Ethics 1180b28–1181a12, 1181b1–15) No access
1. The Partial Forms of Justice in Political and Economic Life (Ethics 1129b11–1131a33, 1131b25–1132a22, 1132b11–1133b23, 1134a23–b18, 1136a34–b14) No access
2. 1. Friendship, the Just, and the Household (Ethics 1159b20–1160a30, 1161a32–1162a29) No access
  2. Friendship, Exchange, and the Problem of Worth (Ethics 1162a35–b31, 1163a21–1165b20, 1167b17–1168a29) No access
3. Conclusion: Justice and Political Philosophy (Politics 1279b11–1280a21, 1280b29–39, 1282b14–30) No access
1. 1. Friendship and the Failings of Common Property (Politics 1261a10–1261b40, 1262b7–24, 1263a21–1264a1, 1264b24–25) No access
  2. Phaleas and the Limits of Equal Property for Political Community (Politics 1266a31–1267b21) No access
2. The Middle Polity and Managing Economic Inequality (Politics 1279a17–b10, 1288b33–39, 1294b13–16, 1295a25–1296a12) No access
3. Conclusion: Friendship and Political Philosophy’s Necessary Provision of the Good to Politics and Economics No access
Conclusion No access Pages 317 - 318
1. A No access
2. B No access
3. C No access
4. D No access
5. E No access
6. F No access
7. G No access
8. H No access
9. I No access
10. J No access
11. K No access
12. L No access
13. M No access
14. N No access
15. O No access
16. P No access
17. R No access
18. S No access
19. T No access
20. U No access
21. V No access
22. W No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Chapter 1 No access
3. Chapter 2 No access
4. Chapter 3 No access
5. Chapter 4 No access
6. Chapter 5 No access
7. Chapter 6 No access
8. Chapter 7 No access
9. Chapter 8 No access
10. Chapter 9 No access
Bibliography No access Pages 369 - 372
Index No access Pages 373 - 392