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

• Superior document: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; Volume 429
• VerfasserIn: Berkel, Tazuko Angela van, 1979-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Monographs on Greek and Roman language and literature ; Volume 429.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

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.

Table of 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 -- The Argument -- 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 -- The Argument -- 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 -- 5 Concluding Remarks -- Epilogue: Hostile Worlds -- Bibliography -- Index.