ABSTRACT

This book presents a positive account of Aristotle’s theory of political economy, arguing that it contains elements that may help us better understand and resolve contemporary social and economic problems.

The book considers how Aristotle’s work has been utilized by scholars including Marx, Polanyi, Rawls, Nussbaum and Sen to develop solutions to the problem of injustice. It then goes on to present a new Social Welfare Function (SWF) as an application of Aristotle’s theory. In exploring how Aristotle’s theories can be applied to contemporary social welfare analysis, the book offers a study that will be of relevance to scholars of the history of economic thought, political theory and the philosophy of economics.

chapter |4 pages

General introduction

part I|70 pages

Post-Enlightenment Aristotelian theorists of political economy

chapter 1|9 pages

Karl Marx

“The Aristotle of the nineteenth century” 1

chapter 2|22 pages

Karl Polanyi

chapter 3|16 pages

John Rawls

chapter 4|12 pages

Amartya Sen

chapter 5|9 pages

Martha Nussbaum

part II|87 pages

Aristotle’s critique of political economy

chapter 7|21 pages

Living well versus mere living

The bifurcation of the community

chapter 9|21 pages

Reciprocity and reciprocal justice

chapter 10|9 pages

Grace in Aristotle’s theory of exchange

part III|13 pages

Contemporary application

part IV|23 pages

Contemporary application