Assets, utilities, affordances
Towards an ecological reading of Xenophon
Abstract
One of the core tenets of Xenophon’s economic thought is the doctrine of Proper Use: χρήματα (‘wealth’, ‘assets’ or literally ‘usables’) only really count as χρήματα if one knows how to make use (χρῆσθαι) of them (Oeconomicus I 8-10). In developing this idea Xenophon seems to come close to articulating a distinction between use value and exchange value. What tends to be overlooked in discussions of this doctrine is the underlying concept of ‘use’ itself. Present-day epistemological and ethical assumptions warp our understanding of Xenophon’s conception of ‘utility’ and ‘use’. This paper is an exercise in ‘unthinking’ these assumptions by way of the critical lens offered by ecological economics and ecocriticism. It will be argued that Xenophon’s doctrine of Proper Use is ‘ecological’ in the sense that it espouses a relationality between subject and object that is entangled, reciprocal and interdependent. The ideal oikonomos does not perceive his environment as exogenous to himself; rather, his mandate is to participate in the larger order of things.
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Funding data
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Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Grant numbers NWO VI.Vidi.191.205
