Aristotle and the Tensions between Politics and Economy

Hernán Borisonik^1,

¹Universidad de Buenos Aires (Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani), CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council), Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cite this paper:
Hernán Borisonik. Aristotle and the Tensions between Politics and Economy. Journal of Finance and Economics. 2014; 2(1):1-6. doi: 10.12691/jfe-2-1-1

Abstract

As presented by Georgio Agamben, the notion of sacer (sacred) appears to be an unavoidable element to analyze the structure of occidental political thought from its very beginning up to the present time. Such interpretation throws new ideas on an essential question: the relationship between politics and economy in Aristotle, the one who had the most complete political project of the ancient world. In that sense, money has a privileged place to deepen Aristotle’s thought. As much in the critique of accumulation and the usury that takes place in his analysis of chrematistics (Politics 1256b-1258a) as well as in the need to consecrate ill-gotten gains in democracies (Politics 1320a), it is clear that money appears in crucial points for defining the relationship between sacred and profane, between politics and the economy. The attempt of this communication will be, then, to make a concrete study of the Aristotelian passages previously mentioned along with commentary on some complementary notes taken from the Nicomaquean Ethics and the Constitution of Athens and to integrate them with Agamben’s explanation of the Homo Sacer. For that reason, categories as ‘sacred’, ‘use’, and ‘exclusion’ will be fundamental for this study.

Keywords:
politics economy sacredness aristotle

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