Spinoza on money and social desire

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Spinoza’s philosophy contains a theory of money very different from that in the economics textbooks, which treat money as an instrument of voluntary exchange. This is because his theory of desire rules it highly unlikely that agents should enter into voluntary exchanges at all. What appears to be voluntary exchange is really something else: a type of retaliatory expropriation, in which money plays a crucial pacifying role. Spinoza warns that money can, however, fail in this function if it becomes an object desired for its own sake. A general decline in prices across Europe beginning in the 1660s probably informed this opinion.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave handbook of philosophy and money
Subtitle of host publicationVolume 2 - Modern thought
EditorsJoseph J. Tinguely
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Chapter4
Pages67-87
Number of pages21
ISBN (Electronic)9783031541407
ISBN (Print)9783031541391, 9783031541421
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Benedict de Spinoza
  • Desire
  • Emulation
  • Ambition
  • Beth Lord
  • Michel Aglietta
  • André Orléan
  • Frédéric Lordon
  • René Girard
  • Debt
  • Violence
  • Desacralization

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