Aristotle's economic thought - Meikle,S

This review focuses upon three themes from Aristotle's Economic Thought (Meikle, 1995) to reveal how (i) Aristotle's essentialist metaphysics can assist in clarifying contemporary issues in (ii) value theory and (iii) economics as ethics. Essentialism allows one to pose (adequately) the central question of value, namely: what is the entity that renders incommensurable commodities commensurable! Essentialism, by discouraging the elision of differences between activities with different aims, sharply differentiates between those activities which aim at use value, and those which aim at exchange value. Pursuit of the latter encourages neglect of the former, making it difficult for society to pursue ethical aims.