The economics of friendship : conceptions of reciprocity in classical Greece / by Tazuko Angela van Berkel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berkel, Tazuko Angela van, 1979- author.

Series:

Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; Volume 429.

Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; Volume 429

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Friendship--Greece.

Friendship.

Greece--Civilization--To 146 B.C.

Greece.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, The Netherlands ; Boston : Brill, [2020]

Summary:

In The Economics of Friendship, Tazuko Angela van Berkel offers an account of the notion of reciprocity in 5th- and 4th-century Greek incepting social theory. The preoccupation with the norms of philia and charis, conspicuous in sources from the Classical Period, is a symptom of changes in the shape of ancient economic activities: the ubiquitous norm that one should reciprocate benefit with benefit becomes a source of conceptual confusion in the Classical Period, where other forms of exchange become conceptually available. This confusion and tension between different models of mutuality, is productive: it is the impetus for folk theory in comedy, tragedy and oratory, as well as philosophical reflection (Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle) on what it is that binds people together.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Economics of Friendship

1 Friendship: Money Can’t Buy It?

2 Φιλια

3 An Economic Mentality

4 Apparatus and Argument

2 Grace under Pressure: The Anatomy of χάρις

The Argument

1 Three Cases of Isomorphism

2 χάρις and Successful Interaction

3 Perception and / méconnaissance

4 Conflicts and Cynicism

5 Concluding Remarks

3 The Most Ancient of Obligations: The Nature of Filial Duty

1 The Parent-Child Bond: A Paradigm-Case

2 The Debtor Paradigm of Obligation

3 The Gratitude Theory

4 The Gratitude Theory Analysed

5 Tensions in the Script: The Possibility of χάρις

6 Concluding Remarks

4 A Debtor Paradigm of Obligation: Principles of Moral Accounting

1 Moral Bookkeeping

2 Morality as Paying Debts

3 Debts, Gifts and Morality

4 Concluding Remarks: The Ledger under Taboo

5 Pricing the Invaluable: Socrates and the Proper Use of Friends

1 Framing Socratic Conversation

2 False Friends, Part One: Utility, Ancient and Modern

3 False Friends Part Two: Economics, Ancient and Modern

4 Education and the Logic of Wage-Earning

5 Concluding Remarks: The Givenness of the Good

6 Active Partnership: Socrates and the Art of Seduction

1 Amazing Grace: Looking as a Reciprocal Endeavour

2 The Hunter Hunted: Role Reversals and the Paradox of the Hetaera

3 Desire Management

4 The Secrets of Love Magic

5 The Socratic Principle: Pay It Forward

6 Concluding Remarks: Language Games at the Market Frontier

7 Relational Economics: Aristotle on Value and Equivalence

1 Aristotle Discovers the Economy?

2 Equivalence

3 Value and Values

4 The Politics of Need

Epilogue: Hostile Worlds

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-41614-5

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004416147 DOI