Philosophy of Money
Historical and etymological
Thales’
options, Republic, Nicomachean Ethics, Arthashastra
Barter, trade, standard items leading to using things like beads, gold silver,
currency and coinage
Circumstances vary; sometimes the currency has no currency, but things like cigarettes do
Money's when
we believe in it (hence the language of faith, good faith and credit (from
Latin verb for believing - credit and credo share the same linguistic source,
fiduciary responsibility, trust). Note relevance of work on the
social construction of reality" - money is entangled with its users and
creators beliefs and conventions.
Dollar bill auction
Tulips (Dutch, 1630s) and other bubbles
Black
Tuesday, October 29, 1929
Other money for sale - lending, exchange (e.g., fluctuation of the Canadian
dollar; Bitcoin), investment, risk, religious restrictions on interest
Money and heroic risks,
e.g., in the age of exploration
Inflation, what counts as enough, and some analogies (e.g., grade inflation)
Prediction, random walk theory, and Bogle's response to "you can't buy the index"
Money and identity
Puritan ethos
Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter's Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Fortune and Fortune (or Money and Luck)
Howard Campbell's speech on money in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan, Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain, Ecclesiastes’ “time and chance”
Taleb’s Stoic betting; responses in Jewish law and scripture – see, e.g., Lev. 19.9-10 (tzedakah, צדקה)
Peter Singer on donations, Voltaire/Churchill/Peter Parker's Uncle Ben on using one's power with responsibility.
Michael Kagan
kagan@lemoyne.edu
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
(This outline
is based on the preliminary lecture-discussion in PHL 403, 4/14/10
-
constructed with some changes with the help of S. Desnoyers' class
notes.)
Some edits,
10/29/2010, 5/3/2017, 12/1/17