Josiah Ober: Agamemnon's Cluelessness https://delong.typepad.com/files/ober-agamemnon-selections.pdf: 'For Aristotle, ethics and politics must take into account “merely living” (zên) as the foundation for the end of living well (eu zên)... in a way... cognizant of the kinds of expertise necessary for living, without losing sight of the ultimate goal of living well. The domain of expertise... concerned with natural material conditions and forms of authority (especially master-slave) required by the end of self-sufficiency is designated oikonomia. But the definition of oikonomia and especially its relationship to money-making (chrêmatistikê) is, Aristotle says, contested.... Among the many goals of Politics book 1 is to put chrêmatistikê–as expert knowledge of a particular relationship among production (poiêsis), exchange (allangê/metablêtikê), and consumption/possession (ktêsis), all characteristically involving coined money—into the normatively correct place in his naturalized hierarchy of value. The critical conclusion is that chrêmatistikê (or one specific type of chrêmatistikê) is a subordinate part of oikonomia. It is not “according to nature” (kata phusin) but rather a technê arising from practical experience (empeiria). It aims the possession and increase of wealth, at accumulation of money, as an end. That accumulation is by its internal logic unbounded and unconstrained, insofar as wealth denominated in monetary terms has no natural limit. Chrêmatistikê thus is a matter of maximizing a single resource (one thought to give access to all other resources), rather than optimizing or satisficing in respect to other values. It is at once contrary to the true end of human existence, a prevalent approach to the management of material goods, and (at least potentially) an essential instrument for both the oikonomos and the politikos. Among the delicate tasks of book 1 of the Politics is, then, to demonstrate that Aristotle knows enough about this dangerous and vulgar (phortikon) instrument to specify its proper uses, while avoiding appearing to honor it as a science worthy of a detailed treatment. Much of Politics book 1.8-11 is devoted to sorting out the contested relationship between chrêmatistikê and oikonomia...
#noted #2019-12-24
