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‘The Economic’ According to Aristotle: Ethical, Political and Epistemological Implications

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Abstract

A renewed concern with Aristotle’s thought about the economic aspects of human life and society can be observed. Aristotle dealt with the economic issues in his practical philosophy. He thus considered ‘the economic’ within an ethical and political frame. This vision is coherent with a specific ontology of ‘the economic’ according to Aristotle. In a recent paper, I analysed this ontology and left its consequences, especially for Ethics and Politics, for another paper. In this article, I firstly summarise the reasoning and conclusions of the aforementioned paper. Then, I extract the ethical and political “lessons” of the Aristotelian conception. I finally add a section with epistemological “lessons”, and consequences for the teaching of Economics.

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Correspondence to Ricardo Crespo.

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Crespo, R. ‘The Economic’ According to Aristotle: Ethical, Political and Epistemological Implications. Found Sci 13, 281–294 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-008-9136-9

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