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From seemingly outdated passages of Aristotle on oikonomikè, this paper tries to select and separate what is old-fashioned from what is valid for today. From these latter elements –which may be abridged in the intrinsic ethical and political character of economics– we can extract useful lessons. These lessons refer to the impact of Ethics and Politics on Economics. They stress the relevance of personal virtues and institutions for a suitable functioning of the economy. From an epistemological point of view, these lessons highlight the inexact character of Economics and the necessity of firm reliance on data. Current economics does not deal with ends, but only with means. The Aristotelian perspective would specially deal with ends. This concern with ends leads to prudential, not technical analysis and decisions. This calls for broadening the scope of Economics and consequently should provoke changes in its instruction. The paper concludes that a closer attention to Aristotle's thought would have a high impact on current economy and Economics. ; En este artículo se separan los elementos anacrónicos de otros perennes, válidos para hoy día, de los pasajes aristotélicos acerca de la oikonomikè. Podemos extraer lecciones útiles de estos últimos elementos. Éstos pueden resumirse en el carácter intrínsecamente ético y político de la economía para Aristóteles. Estas enseñanzas enfatizan la relevancia de las virtudes personales y de las instituciones para un buen funcionamiento de la economía. Desde un punto de vista epistemológico, destacan el carácter inexacto de la economía y la necesidad de una base firme en datos reales. La economía actual es agnóstica en relación a los fines; sólo se preocupa de los medios. La perspectiva aristotélica, en cambio, se ocupa especialmente de los fines. Este envolvimiento con los fines conduce a decisiones y análisis más prudenciales que técnicos, lo que implica una dilatación del ámbito de interés de la economía y los consiguientes cambios en su enseñanza. El trabajo concluye que una atención al pensamiento aristotélico sobre la economía causaría un alto impacto tanto en la actividad económica como en su ciencia. ; Fil: Crespo, Ricardo. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

Resumen: The capabilities approaches (CA) have been originated in the work of the economist Amartya Sen on inequality. Sen, born in India in 1933, is currently Emeritus Professor of Harvard University. He is still active in teaching and researching. He was always concerned with the problem of social justice, poverty and equality. This has led him to hold a broad notion and an ethical view of economics. Driven by these concerns, Sen tackled the topics of inequality and quality of life, and during the 80s he formulated the capability approach. Sen's capability approach is a broad normative framework for the evaluation and assessment of individual well-being, development of countries, present socio-economic situation and social arrangements in order to implement right policies. For Sen, human agency is a crucial element of human well-being in a broad sense that goes beyond utility and that is related to the quality of life. Human agency entails freedom: Freedoms are capabilities of performing some actions, called by him "functionings". These capabilities and functionings compose a good life. Capabilities, for Sen, are a better way of assessing well-being than utility or income (for a good survey, see e.g., Sen 1993 and Ingrid Robeyns 2005). Nobody would deny that this is good news. A concern among scholars, however, has arisen about the operationality of Sen's CA. Traits as the incommensurability of capabilities and their ambiguous definition (see Sen 1999: 76- 7) are sufficient reasons for this concern. As Robert Sugden affirms, "it is natural to ask how far Sen's framework is operational" (1993: 1953). Some arguments for this lack of operationality might be summarized in terms of the inexact or "vague" character of practical reason, the capacity that lies behind the whole CA (on the central role of practical reason within the CA see Nussbaum 1987: 47 and 1995a). For Sen, indeed, the capabilities's ambiguity, both in their definition and in their election, is a positive feature because it reflects and respects the freedom and the differences of the persons (1993: 33-34): for him, asserting ambiguity and fuzziness is not a weakness but a strength.

"This book explores the deep meaning--the nature or essence--of the economy and its fundamental components. As a monograph on the philosophy of the economy and economics, it deduces the metaphysical nature of these two, going step by step from more general to more specific realities to finally arrive at the adequate features of the economic sciences and their methods. It builds on a largely Aristotelian approach, but also draws extensively from modern scholarship in the area. Usefully and pertinently, the book covers both general aspects of the economy and particular historically specific features. Among the important topics covered in the book are the meanings of the economy, the nature and role of economic agents, the nature of the macroeconomy, the nature and role of money, and so on. The book concludes with chapters on the nature of economics itself and its methodologies."--

Chapter 1. Introduction : Does Economics Deal with the Economic Stuff? Or Is the Economic Stuff Explained by Economics? -- Chapter 2. Metaphysics, Ontology, and Metaphysical Theories -- Chapter 3. Metaphysical Categories -- Chapter 4. The Metaphysics and Ontology of the Economy. Chapter 5. The Identity of the Economic Agent -- Chapter 6. The Human Person as Worker -- Chapter 7. The Metaphysics of Social Collectives -- Chapter 8. On the Relation between Micro- and Macroeconomic "Entities"—A Philosophical Approach -- Chapter 9. On the Nature of Money -- Chapter 10. Economic Sciences -- Chapter 11. Conclusions.

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introductory overview -- The theoretical and metaphysical foundations of sciences -- Economics and psychology -- Evolutionary economics -- Neuroeconomics -- Happiness economics -- Institutional economics -- The capability approach -- Civil economy -- Conclusion -- Index

The aim of the book is to argue for the restoration of theoretical and practical reason to economics. It presents Nancy Cartwright and Amartya Sen's ideas as cases of this restoration and sees Aristotle as an influence on their thought. It looks at how we can use these ideas to develop a valuable understanding of practical reason for solving concrete problems in science and society. Cartwright's capacities are real causes of events. Sen's capabilities are the human person's freedoms or possibilities. They relate these concepts to Aristotelian concepts. This suggests that these concepts can be combined. Sen's capabilities are Cartwright's capacities in the human realm; capabilities are real causes of events in economic life. Institutions allow us to deliberate on and guide our decisions about capabilities, through the use of practical reason. Institutions thus embody practical reason and infuse certain predictability into economic action. The book presents a case study: the UNDP's HDI.?