Description
Book Synopsis`[Meikle''s] aim is to make proper sense of Aristotle''s economic thinking, and in a detailed, lucid discussion he succeeds brilliantly.'' Peter Jones, Sunday TelegraphAristotle''s work on money was the backbone of medieval thinking about commerce, and it is still the foundation of Catholic teaching about market behaviour. Marx''s theory of economic value was based on it, and so was much of the economic analysis of money into the present century. In the past hundred years the interpretation of Aristotle''s work on money has become chaotic. Economists claim Aristotle as the father of economics, while classical scholars hold that Aristotle had no economic theory at all. It is argued here that Aristotle does develop a coherent theory of economic value, wealth, exchange, and money, but that this theory cannot be assimilated to what we call economics because its metaphysical foundation is incompatible with the Humean metaphysics on which economics is built. From an Aristotelian standpoint,
Trade ReviewMeikle's book puts Aristotelian metaphysics back on the agenda for anyone who is seriously concerned to understand the fundamental issues of the nature of value and its correlative, the (un)-ethical nature of contemporary capitalism. There are very few issues that are more fundamental and more relevant than these. * Steve Fleetwood, Cambridge Journal of Economics *
Meikle's book is an important scholarly contribution to our understanding of Aristotle's economic thought. * Fred Miller Jr, Apeiron *
the book is undoubtedly well written, and written with great commitment ... It is extremely well researched, and Meikle is thoroughly familiar with the commentators, modern, mediaeval and (to a lesser extent) ancient, on Aristotle's economics. * Vasilis Politis, Trinity College Dublin, Philosophical Quarterly, April 1999 *
