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Sunday, July 19, 2020

Oikonomia is Back, for Now — Jacob Assa

Aristotle, in his book on Politics, distinguished between two kinds of activities. Chrematistike (χρηματιστική) ​– sheer money-making – was considered morally inferior to Oikonomia (οἰκονομία) ​– the concern for morally adequate individual and public household management. In fact Aristotle cautioned against separating financial activities from public (political) oversight, as this Chrematistic ​logic leads to maximization strategies resulting in excesses. By contrast, the desirable Oikonomic ​processes promote overall well-being in social, ecological, financial and even inter-generational dimensions....
 Developing Economics
Oikonomia is Back, for Now
Jacob Assa, economist at United Nations Development Programme

1 comment:

  1. "Chrematistike (χρηματιστική) ​– sheer money-making"

    Here we go again with this guy using the figure of speech "money" from the Roman pantheon to describe what the Greeks were doing centuries before...

    "chrema" cannot be accurately translated into "money!"...

    Its an abstract term meaning general riches or wealth...

    If you translate that as "money!" youre making the typical reification error that leads to Monetarism... you dont get the abstraction...

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