Based on the application of the formation approach to the development of the economic and social structure of countries, a comparative analysis of the capitalist and socialist economies is carried ...out. The inconsistency of the materialist doctrine of the socio-economic formation is shown. The illegitimacy of ignoring spirituality, values of society and elites in the economic development of countries is proved. The thesis that the basis of society is not the economy but spirituality of society is substantiated. To understand the driving forces of capitalism and socialism, there used economics and chrematistics, the latter considers not physical indicators, as economics does, but is aimed at exploitation, usury. Approaches to the assessment of the economy as a dynamic, constantly changing internal and external social development are considered. There studied the evolution of capitalism in terms of improving skills of employees, level of income, formation of the middle class, creation of forms of social security — insurance, the pension system. It is proved that the fundamentals of capitalism remain unchanged: the industrial material and technical base, private ownership of the means of production, the social form of production under the private capitalist form of appropriation, liberalism as the dominant theory in economics. Characteristic features of the socialist mode of production, the Soviet economy are revealed. It is proved that all above mentioned ensured the application of countervailing mechanisms of economic development, active introduction of the achievements of scientific and technical progress, belief of the population in social justice in society, care of the state about man, and confidence in the future. Proposals are made as to changing the methodology of economic research and real reforms in favor of the primacy of fundamental moral values, evaluation of activities by physical rather than cost indicators.
Chrematistics (gr. hrematistike) is not only a new (actually very old, but newly re-discovered) ‘word’ but simultaneously a completely new ‘perspective’ in the sense of different thinking and ...understanding. Moreover, chrematistics is a new paradigm of thinking and, simultaneously, a new methodology of argumentation. In short, it is the paradigm of countereconomical thinking/arguing being based in a precise distinction between economics (gr. oikonomike) and hrematistike, which was made by Aristotle in his first book of Politics. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, the problem – and the aim – is to (re)open the historically present and simultaneously ‘lost’ (hidden) distinction between these two crucial categories of our times. Consequently, the aim is to develop a possible understanding of the distinction. Secondly, in this paper, I have also attempted to emphasize some of the usages of the already existing distinction at the level of the theories of philosophy and economy and the possible critiques of latter. The final but by no means lesser emphasis – and its main hypothesis- of the paper is aiming at the problem of our time in the sense that our current problems and crises are not at all possible seriously to grasp in economic, but primarily in the chrematistic categories and the possibilities of that new paradigm of thinking.
Contributing to the analytical capacity of critical thinking in macromarketing, we develop a research framework that would enable researchers to investigate chrematistics in marketing systems. ...Chrematistics refers to regulative influences on marketing systems’ structure and operations of market action perpetuated by actors with power/dominance. We outline the research framework consisting of a seven-step process that helps to scrutinize the transformative effect of chrematistic practices on the design and regulation of marketing systems.
The article deals with the destruction of the widespread myth about Karl Marx as a “Promethean thinker”. Under Prometheism/Prometheanism is the point of view according to which nature is considered ...as a quantitatively “inexhaustible storehouse”, which must be known and conquered on the basis of scientific and technical knowledge in order to be used to meet constantly growing human needs through continuous growth of production and, accordingly, a permanent increase in the degree of aggressive exploitation of nature while completely ignoring the consequences of this exploitation both for the environment and for human society itself. Since the myth of the “prometheanism” of Marx, which is very tenacious to this day, was previously dispelled in the field of political economy (J.B. Foster, K. Saito, P. Burkett), sociology (A. Salleh, M. Musto), ecology (B. Clark, J. Moore, E. Alvater, K. Saito, T. Grassmann), political science (K. Royce), then in the proposed study the author focused only on some of the philosophical aspects of the problem. In the first part of the article it is shown that Marx (based on some of his statements) is mistakenly criticized by many thinkers for anti-environmentalism; in the second, relying on the texts of Marx himself, it is proved that these fragments torn from the general context of his philosophy are mostly false, because Marx, often praising technological progress, nevertheless, was not a Promethean, as he subjected the social and environmental consequences of the capitalist application of technology and science to radical scientific criticism; Finally, in the third part, through the reconstruction of Marx’s philosophical-anthropological and socio-philosophical ideas, Marx’s true attitude to environmental issues is shown. The author’s arguments are as follows. According to Marx, the ontological basis for the existence of any human society is social metabolism, i.e. the exchange of substances between man and nature through transformative activity, during the deployment of which all the “worlds” in which man exists are drawn into metabolic exchange (nature, society, “second nature” – material and spiritual culture, the world of others, their own inner world). Each socio-historical stage of development has its own specific type of metabolism, i.e. its own special form of ecological interaction between all “worlds”. Based on this method, Marx shows that metabolic rifts, i.e. disturbances in the processes of normal, balanced flow of social metabolism in the totality of all these “worlds” are most characteristic of capitalism due to its structural Promethean intentions (the desire to increase profits, which is associated with the need for permanent growth of production – the imperative “grow or die!”; and hence to increase the exploitation of nature). And in this sense, Marx’s philosophical ecology not only fully corresponds to the modern level of understanding of ecological/environmental problems, but also offers a holistic methodology not only for “explaining” these problems, but also for their “practical solution”.
In Aristotle’s thought, economic activity refers to a kind of praxis consisting in allocating the human and material means that constitute the oikos –the domestic community- to fulfil its natural ...ends: ensure both life and the means of life. By means of
natural chrematistics -acquisitive art- families acquire the necessary means for this, which come from production and exchange. Families group together in the political community (polis) whose end is living well, according to virtues, among which
justice is highlighted as the ‘complete virtue’. For its part, the Christian êthos regards every human act, internal and external, of this complete system (polis, oikos and chrematistics) as tending towards its ultimate purpose (beatitudo). In St. Thomas’s view,
eternal law harmonizes necessity of irrational beings, loving God’s action (divine law), natural law, and the contingency of ‘human things’ where the economy is included. Trading activity is lawful if it is at the service of the oikos or polis and according to how is exercised, by following commutative justice. The family, political and religious character of human nature establishes what the natural-necessary consists of, embracing, apart from bodily goods,
others derived from considering social status and the life chosen (civil, religious, active or contemplative). Economic activity based on this anthropological root has a specific place as a part of an ordered natural-legal totality that provides the economy with meaning and sufficient moral guidance.
DIVINE MANAGEMENT Toscano, Alberto
Angelaki : journal of theoretical humanities,
09/2011, Volume:
16, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This essay seeks to evaluate the methodological and theoretical relevance of Agamben's The Kingdom and the Glory to a radical critique of contemporary politics and economics. In particular, it ...explores what is meant by the "theological genealogy of the economy and government" announced by the book's subtitle. This involves subjecting to scrutiny Agamben's reliance on a certain understanding of secularisation, of the kind that permits him to declare that modernity merely brings to completion the Christian "economy" of providence, or indeed that Marx's notion of praxis "basically is only the secularisation of the theological conception of the being of creatures as divine operation." The paper tries to show that Agamben's work relies on a type of historical substantialism that clashes with his claim to be engaging in a genealogy. It also investigates the blindspots in Agamben's treatments of the crucial themes of money and administration.
Fashion and consumption are closely linked by so-called "cultural codes" which vary according to each civilization. This paper addresses this issue by linking the approaches of scholars from various ...periods and nations in order to find similarities and differences in consumption habits. Fashion consumption and its implied visibility have to mandatorily refers to money, whose social validity at a historic moment was called by Ortega y Gasset as "Chrematistic empire times." The article is intended to infer that when teaching about fashion and consumption studies the interdisciplinary approach is substantial to understand the fashion system. This paper is an excerpt of the author doctoral thesis and subsequently published under the name Fashion, Economy and Society. Today, this contribution comes to enrich the academic world, to integrate this publication.
A moda e o consumo estão estreitamente ligados pelos denominados "códigos culturais" os quais mudam segundo cada civilização. O artigo aborda a questão vinculando as miradas de estudiosos de diversos períodos e povos com a finalidade de encontrar diferencias e similitudes nos hábitos de compra. O consumo da moda e a exibição que implica não podem ser abordados sem realizar uma referencia ao dinheiro, cuia vigência social num momento histórico Ortega y Gasset qualificou como "épocas do império crematístico". Do estudo pretende-se inferir que no ensino dos estudos da moda e o consumo é substancial o enfoque interdisciplinar para compreender o sistema da moda. O escrito faz parte da Tese Doutoral da autora e publicado depois com o nome Moda, Economia e Sociedade. Hoje, este aporte enriquece o mundo acadêmico para integrar esta publicação.
La moda y el consumo están estrechamente ligados por los denominados "códigos culturales" los cuales varían de acuerdo a cada civilización. El presente artículo aborda la cuestión vinculando las miradas de estudiosos de diversos períodos y pueblos con el fin de encontrar diferencias y similitudes en los hábitos de compra. El consumo de la moda y la exhibición que implica no pueden ser abordados sin realizar una referencia al dinero, cuya vigencia social en un momento histórico Ortega y Gasset calificó como "épocas del imperio crematístico". Del estudio se pretende inferir que en la enseñanza de los estudios de la moda y el consumo es substancial el enfoque interdisciplinario para comprender el sistema de la moda. El presente escrito forma parte de la Tesis Doctoral de la autora y publicado posteriormente bajo el nombre Moda, Economía y Sociedad. Hoy, este aporte viene a enriquecer el mundo académico, para integrar la presente publicación.
Building on Aristotle's distinction between
oikonomía (‘the art of household management’) and
chrematistics (
khrēmatistiké, ‘the art of acquisition’) and the associated difference between use-value ...and exchange-value based economic processes this paper critically discusses modern economics by employing system theory insights. It is argued that the constitution of modern economics has been, at the political and ideological level, strongly associated to the rise of capitalist free-market economy, while at the methodological level it is based on the Newtonian ideals of formal elegance and simplicity of models. These Newtonian ideals in turn underpin the universal claim of modern economics’ theories and the presumption of causal relations between objects that respond in a fully determinable mechanical way to outside stimuli. Discussing the link between modern economics methodological claims at one hand and its political/ideological legitimization of the free-market institutional arrangement of the economic process at the other, in the final part of this paper both modern economics and the free-market dynamics are discussed from the perspective of dynamic complex system's theory.
Chrematistic Deviations Bay, Thomas
Journal of interdisciplinary economics,
01/2012, Volume:
24, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
What was actually produced when the first derivatives wriggled their way out of the conventional financial trajectories? When one understood that a transaction did not have to be a transaction of ...something, but that the transaction itself, which was nothing, could be transacted? And what does this tell us about the functioning of the economy? These questions will be addressed by making a detour through some passages in Aristotle’s economic writings, hoping thereby to demonstrate that financial derivation, far from being simply a hyperbolic tool of speculation, is an economic geno-practice, the productive play, the mobility itself, of economy, its inventive, deviatory clinamen or line of flight on which new ‘economies’ are engendered.
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