Aristotle To Aquinas

Aristotle to Aquinas History of Economic Thought Boise State University Spring 2007 Prof. D. Allen Dalton

Background

750 BCE: Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey

700 BCE: Hesiod’s Works and Days

Homer’s and Heisod’s Greece

extensive colonization of Mediterranean

primacy of agriculture and culture of hospitality and reciprocity

secondary position of merchant traders

Background Greek and Phoenician colonies circa 700 BCE

The Golden Age of Greece

From mid-5 th century BCE

Flowering of Drama and Comedy

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes

Beginning of Historical study

Herodotus’ Histories and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War

Architectural wonders

Temple of Zeus, the Parthenon, Temple of Artemis, Mausoleum at Helicarnassus

Advances in “Natural” Philosophy and Medicine

Anaxagoras (matter in motion); Democritus and Leucippus (atoms) advance Materialism

Hippocrates develops empirical study of disease

Golden Age Philosophy

Social Philosophy

Sophists (Pre-Socratic)

Socrates and the Socratic Method

Socratic schools

Cynicism - Antisthenes

Platonism - Plato

Aristotelianism - Aristotle

Skepticism - Eucliedes

Epicureanism - Aristippus and Epicurus

Stoicism - Zeno

The Sophists

Protagoras (481 - 411 BCE) and Democritus (460? - 362? BCE)

Sophist = teacher of wisdom

Sensation as source of knowledge.

“ Man is the measure of all things.”

Various versions of “Justice,” but none center on religion, the gods, or the state.

Emphasis on grammar, logic, dialectics, forms of arguments and detection of fallacy.

Socrates

Socrates (469 - 399 BCE)

The Socratic Method

definition and questioning

Concentration upon Ethics and Politics

Purpose of philosophy is to guide one to the good life; “Goodness” not general and abstract but specific and practical; the highest good is happiness, the highest means is knowledge.

Government by ability; rejects tradition and subjects every rule to reason.

The Early Epicureans

Aristippus (435? - 356? BCE) founder

“ I possess; but am not possessed.”

Source of action is pain and pleasure.

Virtue and philosophy judged according to pleasure.

Uncertainty of knowledge makes physical pleasure the highest good.

The Late Epicureans

Epicurus (341 - 270 BCE)

Source of action is pain and pleasure.

Uncertainty of knowledge makes physical pleasure the highest good.

Since physical pleasure may have evil effects, man must discriminate between actions.

Understanding is the highest virtue.

The wise man seeks to control appetite, put aside fear, and seek peace.

The Cynics

Antisthenes (444 - 365 BCE) founder

Reduce things of the flesh to bare necessities so the soul may be free.

“ I do not possess, in order not to be possessed.”

Only real philosophy is ethics; virtue is possessing little, desiring little (except sex); injuring no one.

Religion is superstition.

After Diogenes (412? - 323 BCE), becomes a “monastic”order (rule of poverty ).

The Skeptics

Eucleides of Megara (450 - 374 BCE)

Denies possibility of any real knowledge.

Pyrrho of Elis (365 - 275 BCE) founder

Certainty is unattainable; wise man will suspend judgment and seek tranquility rather than truth.

Since all theories are probably false, one might as well accept social myths and conventions .

The Stoics

Zeno (336 - 264 BCE) founder

How can epicurean pleasure be reconciled with self-control necessary for societal survival?

Knowledge arises from senses; between sensation and reason lies passion (source of epicurean drive for pleasure).

Reason must be used to overcome passion.

Determinism and realignment with religion - God (supreme intelligence) is beginning, the middle, and the end - human science is working out of that determined by The Supreme Intelligence.

Plato (427? - 347 BCE)

Student of Socrates; influenced by Aristippus, Cynics and Eucleides

Founds the Academy in Athens 386 BCE - “Let no one without geometry enter here.”

Writings found in the Thirty-Six Dialogues (conversations of Socrates).

Poetic structure of works.

Plato has no system; thoughts on different topics presented in Dialogues.

Plato (427? - 347 BCE)

Rejects sensations as ultimate source of knowledge; knowledge possible through Ideas - not objective to senses but real to thought.

God, the Prime Mover Unmoved, moves and orders all things according to eternal laws and perfect, changeless Ideas.

Highest Idea is the Good - to perceive the Good is the loftiest goal of knowledge.

Plato (427? - 347 BCE)

Problem of ethics lies in apparent conflict between individual pleasure and social good.

Justice defined as co-operation of the parts in a whole.

Appalled at the existence of faction in Athenian politics.

The Republic , and later, The Laws is Plato’s utopian response to the corruption of Athenian democracy.

focuses on justice as making men good

Aristotle (384 - 322 BCE)

Student of Plato

Tutor of Alexander, 343-334 BCE

Founds the Lyceum in Athens 334 BCE, starting rivalry between his school and the Academy.

Wrote 27 Dialogues , for which he was renowned in antiquity, and were considered the equal of Plato.

Lost in “barbarian conquest” of Rome

Known to modern world through his lecture notes (likely organized by pupils).

Aristotle’s Organon is his contribution to logic and reasoning - consisting of six books.

Senses are source of knowledge.

Man forms universals, or categories, from many perceptions of like objects.

Universals are conceptions, not things (rejects Plato’s Idealism).

Presents deductive reasoning based on experience as method of science and philosophy.

In science, Aristotle produces books in natural science, biology, (his History of Animals is his greatest scientific achievement) and psychology ( On the Soul ).

Aristotle’s Metaphysics produces his view of God as the First Cause Uncaused, pure thought, internal to nature.

Ethics is concerned with individual happiness; Politics is concerned with collective happiness.

Economic Contributions

Plato

first recognizable economic theory

explanation of the division of labor in The Republic

Nature of the ideal Republic

exclusion of traders and workers from citizenship; slavery taken for granted

limitation of markets, private property and money

Aristotle

Origin of state does not arise from Plato’s patriarchal family, nor the Sophist “social contract,” but exchange (self-sufficiency) ties men together.

Defense of private property against Plato’s communism focuses on incentives, peaceful coexistence, and the opportunity to act benevolently.

Slavery defended on basis of natural inequality.

(contra Cynics and Epicureans)

Aristotle on Wealth-Getting

Differentiates between natural and unnatural (agricultural and barter v. trade)

Differentiates between wealth and money

Theoretical explanation origin of money

money arises as medium of exchange to solve the problems of barter

money arises as a commodity with preexisting (intrinsic) value

Condemnation of usury (“unnatural” use of money)

Aristotle on Justice and Exchange

Types of Justice

distributive (spoils of war)

rectificatory (compensation for loss)

commutative or reciprocal (exchange)

What is Aristotle’s theory of exchange? Of justice in exchange?

Is exchange an exchange of equals?

Is justice in exchange an exchange of equals?

Is money the medium by which unequals become “equalized”?

Epicureanism

Emphasis on happiness, pain and pleasure (foreshadows later utilitarianism).

Stoicism

View that human science is working out of that which is determined by the supreme intelligence leads to natural law view of nature and human action.

Further Reading

General History

Will Durant, The Life of Greece , 1939.

Michael Grant, The Founders of the Western World , 1991.

David Tandy, Warriors into Traders: The Power of the Market in Early Greece , 2000.

Economics/Philosophy

Plato, Waterfield, trans., The Republic , 1993.

McKeon, Introduction to Aristotle , 1947.

Meikle, Aristotle’s Economic Thought , 1995.

Islamic Scholasticism

Aristotle and Plato influenced the West by the transmission of their ideas as seen through the lens of Islamic Scholasticism of the 9 th – 12 th centuries of the Common Era.

The Islamic Scholastics

Al-Kindi (801-873)

Al-Razi (865-925)

Al-Farabi (870-950)

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037)

Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058-1111)

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198)

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058-1111)

born at Tus in Khorasan (mod. Iran)

reared by Sufi friend of deceased father

primary field was law, but as result of teaching law, lost belief in reason to sanction Islam

In his two great works, Tahafat and Ihya , greatly influenced Aquinas and Christian theologians in putting reason to employ in defense of orthodoxy, but also...

nearly ended pursuit of philosophy and science in Islam, while making Sufism acceptable to orthodoxy

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198)

born in Cordova

grandfather and father chief justices of Cordova

1169, chief justice of Seville

1172, chief justice of Cordova

1182, physician to Emir of Marraqesh

Kitab al-Kulliyat fil-Tibb ( Colliget ), a medical encyclopedia, widely used in Christian universities

The ultimate Aristotelian rationalist and primary heretic of medieval Islam and medieval Christianity

Further Reading

General History

Will Durant, The Age of Faith , 1950.

Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History , 2002.

Richard Rubenstein, Aristotle’s Children , 2003.

Economics/Philosophy

S. M. Ghazanfar, ed., Medieval Islamic Economic Thought: Filling the “Great Gap” in European economics , 2003.

Oliver Leaman, Averroes and His Philosophy , 1997.

L.E. Goodman, Avicenna , 1994.

Al-Ghazali, (Marmura, trans.), The Incoherence of the Philosophers , 2000.

Latin Scholasticism

Latin Scholasticism, built upon Greek philosophy and Christian theology, is the foundation of modern philosophical and scientific thought.

The Scholastic Ages

Fall of Rome (5 th century)

Rise of Feudalism and Manorialism (8 th and 9 th centuries)

Peasant status becomes increasingly servile until the 12 th century

The First Logistic (9 th – 11 th centuries)

Agricultural Innovation and Population Growth

The Crusades (1095-1291)

The Scholastic Ages

Commercial Revolution (11 th – 13 th centuries)

The 14 th Century

The century of Famine, Plague, War, and Statism

Breakdown of Serfdom (14 th – 15 th centuries)

Europe’s Second Logistic (15 th – 17 th centuries)

Economics – Law Tradition

Roman Law dominates…

Mercantile activity served important social ends (health and maintenance of family).

Profits justified by labor and expense, ends served, risk, and uncertainty.

“ Just price” is established by the “common estimate” of the market; isolated exchange subject to laesio enormis constraints.

Canon Law dominates

Usury prohibition lessened at fringes, but dominant position is usury as a mortal sin.

“ Two forums” doctrine effectively allows interest (esp. from mid-13th century)

Pre-Scholastic Christianity

How to reconcile reason with revelation, science with faith, philosophy with theology?

Question addressed and answer found in St. Basil, Origen, St. Augustine and others

ALL wisdom of philosophy (Plato, etc.) is due to inspiration of the Logos; therefore, all wisdom of philosophy is God’s truth and can not be in contradiction to revelation

St. Augustine

faith aids reason and reason aids faith

But How???

Scholasticism

the method and manner of dialectical philosophizing (question and answers) taught in the schools

the period from 9th century CE, when new schools arose in Europe to spread Patristic faith disciplined by dialectic methods of thinking

Christian Rationalism, as distinct from Augustinian Intuitionism

reason applied to nature, human nature and supernatural truth

Scholastic Process

“ Through doubting we come to inquiry, and through inquiry we perceive the truth.”

- Peter Abelard

Major Scholastic Thinkers

St. Anselm (1033-1109)

Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

Peter Lombard (c.1100 - c.1160)

St. Albertus Magnus (1193/1206 - 1280)

Roger Bacon (1212-1294)

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274)

John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

William of Occam (1285-1349)

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Italian, born near Naples

Dominican, student of Albertus Magnus, professor of theology at Paris, papal advisor

Century of Dispute

13th Century is torn between Augustinians who make truth a matter of faith and Averroists, led by Siger de Brabant ( ? - 1277), who separate truth from faith.

Aquinas advances a middle ground

reason and faith constitute two harmonious realms; faith complements reason; but, reason has autonomy of its own.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Thomist Philosophy

systematic application of Aristotelian methods and distinctions

Aquinas’ Works

Commentary of the Sentences (public lectures 1254-56)

seven quaestiones disputatae (public debates 1256-72)

commentaries on several of Aristotle’s works

Summa contra Gentiles (1258-60)

Summa theologica (1267-73)

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas on Property Rights

All law, including natural law and human law, if derived from “right reason,” is derived from God’s eternal law; reason can add or subtract to natural law.

Private property is justified by right reason because it

leads to a society of less conflict.

is better cared for than common property.

allows people to exercise liberality.

is founded in labor and occupation.

… but this right is limited by just demands of the social order (state) and just demands of the needy.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas on Just Price and Price Determination

Exchange is for mutual advantage and driven by utility. (But, reintroduces Aristotelian confusion of “equality for equality” without the interpretation of Albertus Magnus).

Seller may charge higher price than he paid (labor and expenses, risk, uncertainty).

Supply affects price (common estimate is just price).

A seller need not tell buyers of future supplies that would affect price willingly paid by buyers.

Price of a good depends on its usefulness to man, not on the nature of the good.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas on Usury

(1) Certain things are extinguished upon use, and thus their use can’t be separated from the thing itself.

(2) To lend such a thing is to transfer ownership.

(3) One can not sell the use of such things separate from the ownership of such things.

(4) Money is such a thing (“invented chiefly for exchange”).

(5) Therefore, interest is unnatural and usury is a sin.

But other things can be granted the use of while retaining ownership, and therefore can both be rented and sold.

Profits from partnerships ( societas ) is not usury.

Economics of Aquinas and Olivi

Aquinas’ economics

Shows some progress beyond Aristotle but continues Aristotelian confusions, especially regarding interest; inferior to immediate predecessors (esp. Albertus Magnus).

Substantial contribution to the idea of natural law as discovered by “right reason.”

Olivi’s economics

Discoverer of subjective utility theory and initiator of concept of capital.

Defender of current market price as just price and partial use of lucrum cessans in loans.

Middle Scholastic Economics

Contributions of the Middle Scholastics

Buridan and Oresme advance the theory of money significantly, laying the groundwork for the Late Scholastics’ quantity theory of money.

San Bernardino’s defense of commerce, description of the entrepreneurial function, and defense of foreign trade and foreign exchange contribute greatly to the collapse of anti-commercialism.

San Bernardino’s revival of Olivi’s contributions to subjective utility theory and the concept of capital are vital to development of future economic theory.

Usury question remains topic of dispute though increasingly liberalized position and markets were making arguments increasingly irrelevant.

Late Scholastic Economics

Contributions of Late Scholastics

Catejan argues for freedom of foreign exchange and legality of interest; briefly dominant before reaction.

Navarrus and Molina significantly advance monetary theory; found the quantity theory of money, noting the value of money is its purchasing power determined by demand and supply of that money; that foreign exchange rates are determined by the purchasing-power parity of different currencies as determined by demand and supply of one currency for another.

Molina and Mariana significantly reform natural law and natural rights theory into an active concept that was to find favor in contemporary and later political economy.

Further Reading