IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v30y2006i5p767-781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ontology of 'the economic': an Aristotelian analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Ricardo F. Crespo

Abstract

Tony Lawson's and Uskali Mäki's respective realist projects rely on an ontology of the economy. This paper will not focus on these research projects but will instead try to shed light on them by introducing an ontology of the economy according to Aristotle. Oikonomiké, the seminal term used by him, is not a noun but an adjective. For Aristotle, nouns express entities or beings, both self-sufficient beings and accidental properties. Adjectives almost always express accidents. What kind of being is 'the economic'? This analysis will suggest some conclusions about the constraints of economic science and the need for institutions according to the peculiar ontological condition of 'the economic' as conceived by Aristotle. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Ricardo F. Crespo, 2006. "The ontology of 'the economic': an Aristotelian analysis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 30(5), pages 767-781, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:30:y:2006:i:5:p:767-781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bei106
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cendejas Bueno, José Luis, 2016. "Ordenación de la actividad económica, ley natural y justicia en Aristóteles y en Santo Tomás [Ordination of economic activity, natural law and justice in Aristotle and Saint Thomas]," MPRA Paper 73585, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Sep 2016.
    2. José Luis CENDEJAS BUENO, 2017. "Economics, chrematistics, oikos and polis in Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 5-46, May.
    3. David Andrews, 2014. "Adam Smith's Natural Prices, the Gravitation Metaphor, and the Purposes of Nature," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-42, March.
    4. Vianney Domingo & Domènec Melé, 2022. "Re-Thinking Management: Insights from Western Classical Humanism," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, April.
    5. Ricardo Crespo & Belén Mesurado, 2015. "Happiness Economics, Eudaimonia and Positive Psychology: From Happiness Economics to Flourishing Economics," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 931-946, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:30:y:2006:i:5:p:767-781. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.