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nydus/A History of Greek Economic ThoughtPublic

This volume provides a reinterpretation of Greek economic theory by examining the relationship between ancient thought and modern humanitarian economy. The text analyzes Greek economic ideas within the context of the contemporary economic environment and provides a bibliography of relevant scholarly works.

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER II ECONOMIC IDEAS BEFORE PLATO, AND REASONS FOR THE UNDEVELOPED CHARACTER OF GREEK ECONOMICS

e) Perhaps the strongest reason for the comparative unimportance of Greek economic thought is usually not emphasized. It is the patent fact that almost our only extant sources are the Socratic philosophers, who represent avowedly a direct moral reaction against the commercial spirit and money-greed of their age.67 Thus the limited development of Greek economics, so far from being an evidence of primitive economic conditions in Greece, is a direct argument for the opposite. To be sure, a man with the scientific mind of Aristotle would scarcely have failed to gain a clearer apprehension of certain fundamentals of economics than he did, had his economic environment been more complex. Yet the fact remains that he and Plato are moral prophets, protesting against that very capitalism whose existence many modern historians have sought to deny to their age.

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