History of Economics Society 2014 Best Article Award Committee: Mary Morgan, Viviane Brown, and Carlos Suprinyak Citation: "Dotan Leshem’s paper “Oikonomia Redefined” provides a fascinating interpretation of the notion of ‘oikonomia’ in ancient Greek texts. Whether practicing economic virtue or its corresponding vice, prudence is kept unharmed, and both the sound-minded and the licentious person are liable to slip into some sort of bondage. Juxtaposing Aristotelian and market economy sheds light on the fact that we are free to choose between vicious and virtuous economy. By following the different definitions of prominent modern economists to the scope and method of economic science, I argue that what Aristotle did not foresee was that the economy may be marketed by prudently economizing bodily desires as self-aroused by the market. As suggested, the solution offered by him was economizing the market by subjecting it to the mode of sound-minded conduct. The essay argues that Aristotle identified the market as arousing excessive desires in people, and by doing so it poses a threat to the mere existence of the polis. This essay juxtaposes two senses given to the concept of “market economy”: economizing the market, as suggested by Aristotle, and marketing the economy, as suggested by modern economists. Furthermore, although the collapse of the classical city-state during the Hellenistic era entailed a privatization of the household, it was not until modern times, from the late eighteenth century onwards-when the concept of the natural right to life and property became firmly established in juridical and political discourses-that the private sphere attained genuine autonomy. My aim is to show that the art of the household and the art of politics were not distinct arts as has been claimed in modern political theory. Particularly in Athens during the democratic period, the polis was depicted as a family writ large, and to the extent that oikos was seen as an entity of its own, it was a part of the polis, not excluded from or opposed to it. The relationship between the oikos and the polis was not exclusive in classical poleis. The aim of this article is to show that this image of the Greek city-state is not very accurate. The Greek city-state has traditionally been viewed as an entity that was divided into two distinct spheres (oikos and polis) and governed by two distinct arts (oikonomia and politikê technê).
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