Thomas Aquinas’s bonum arduum applied to economics: towards a lexicon assuming scarcity and risk

By situating the human laborer in his proper context as imago Dei, defining what constitutes properly human labor, and recognizing the proper ends of that labor, St. Thomas Aquinas provides clarity on how contemporary scholars and policymakers can establish a fundamental right to work. By also attending to Thomas’ account of distributive justice and the role of the sovereign to account for that justice, contemporary leaders in the public and private sectors might understand the priority of full employment in national economies. Such revision can lead not only to a more proximate attainment of the temporal human flourishing in the common good, but can also create the social context for a ‘spirituality of work’, highlighted in the conclusion of John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens, as a means whereby the active life and the contemplative life can coincide and direct men and women evermore to their end in the vision of God.

Thomas Aquinas’s economic thought is articulated around the notion of exchange. Production, and its financing, is not addressed in a direct and systematic way. However, a synoptic reading of Aquinas’s economic texts allows us to identify a broad and innovative vision of production, which makes supply possible and, since it is ordered to exchange, is first of all a production of services, even before it is a production of goods. His financial approach is primarily ex post, through the revenue generated by sales. Ex ante financing is also provided for, although the prohibition on borrowing for production limits its scope.

The essay examines the Catholic Church's theology of work, as revealed specifically by two influential encyclicals on human work, Rerum Novarum (1891) and Laborem Exercens (1981). Both documents attracted approval for their espousal of the dignity of the worker, and Laborem Exercens in particular is said to have expounded the establishment of a dynamic new form of economic personalism in which John Paul II attempts to analyse the moral ramifications of economic activity in light of a theological vision of the human person. For all their good intentions of rationalising human materiality, both encyclicals served primarily to redress the imbalances of the employer/employee relationship, rather than to fundamentally question the philosophical and biblical anthropology of the increasingly dysfunctional nature of human work.The Catholic Land Movement (1929 – 1939), an English agrarian community initiative that embraced the principles of Rerum Novarum, attempted in to create an entirely new theology of human work, around the principles of Distributism, Dominicanism and the arts-and-crafts movement. The ideological progress of the land colonies, and their increasing antipathy to industrialism, led them to challenge fundamentally the presumption of the need for mass employment - a position that significantly undermined the primacy of Rerum Novarum, and consequently compromised hierarchy support for their initiative, leading to the organisation's rapid decline. Despite its failure, the Catholic Land Movement nonetheless gave voice to the theologically significant possibility that the message of Genesis might not be that Man is destined for a lifetime's arduous toil.

النصوص المسمارية وبشكل خاص النصوص الاقتصادية تُعتبر واحدة من اكثر الوثائق المهمة التي تعكس حقيقة الحياة اليومية، في الحقيقة من بين عصور بلاد الرافدين العصر البابلي القديم (2004-1595 ق.م) تميزَ بتطور النشاط الاقتصادي الذي انعكس في النصوص المسمارية الاقتصادية كمادة فكرية لدراسة الاوضاع الاقتصادية و الاجتماعية لذلك العصر ، هذا البحث يدرس خمس نصوص مسمارية غير منشورة التي هي جزء من نصوص مصادرة تعود الى المتحف العراقي، لذ فان موقعهم ومصدرهم غير معروف ، احدهم يعود الى (ابي-ايشيوخ) الملك الثامن لسلالة بابل الاولى ، نص اخر له صيغة تاريخية جديدة نعتقد بانها تعود (ابي-ساري) سادس ملوك مدينة لارسا ، ثلاث منهم لايمتلكون صيغة تاريخية مما ادى ذلك صعوبة تحديد المدة الزمنية لهذه النصوص، لكن بشكل عام تعود للعصر البابلي القديم ، بالاستناد الى الاسماء الشخصية التي تحتويها والتي كانت مألوفه في ذلك الوقت، فضلاً عن طريقة الكتابة التي تدعم عائدية النصوص الى العصر البابلي القديم

The article is a Abstract of opinions of the Catholic Church with regard to the question of business ethics. It is presenting a changing overview of priorities since the early Middle Ages, when the main concern was a problem of usury, richness or trade, through the turbulent times of XIX and XX century, where the main reflection was related to private ownership and value of human work, ending with the contemporary times. The first part discusses the roots of Catholic social teaching, which are dating back to the Middle Ages and writings of Saint Ambrosius and Augustine. The important contribution into social teaching were also the ideas of scholastics - Thomas Aquinas and the late Spanish scholastics. The second part of the paper refers to the classic period in Catholic social teaching, that means since the encyclical Rerum Novarum of the pope Leo XIII, till Laborem Exercens of John Paul II. Then, a short resume of contemporary teaching follows, which includes chosen encyclicals by John Paul II, published after 1989 and also dogmatic point of view of Catholic Church contained in the last edition of Catechism of Catholic.

An academic text being described as ‘scholastic’ is usually perceived as a criticism, pointing to the text’s formal, dogmatic character. This characteristic was used from time to time in relation to the works of social scientists in the USSR. This term is much less common in modern academia, including the discussion of modern economic writings. This does not mean, however, that many of these papers do not deserve to be described as such, given the ever-increasing number of publications. The article puts forward a hypothesis that there is a connection between the scholastic style of reasoning and the construction of economic texts, signifying the onset of a crisis in economic research, accompanied by a transition to a full-scale socio-economic crisis. This hypothesis is being tested on the basis of two historical precedents — medieval scholasticism proper and the political economy of socialism. In both cases, the term ‘scholastic’ was applied relatively frequently to published texts. In addition, during the periods of feudal or Soviet scholasticism, the dominant role was played by religion or, in the case of the Soviet Union, ideology and its dominance was also reinforced by power hierarchies. While in the case of feudalism it was the Vatican that held the ‘monopoly on truth’, in the USSR this role was played by Marxism-Leninism and the Politburo of the CPSU. In the case of the Middle Ages, the authors use Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologia as the main object of discursive analysis and as for the Soviet period, the analysis focuses on the monograph Political Economy — Theoretical Foundation of the CPSU’s Policy published in 1989 by Soviet theoretical economists. Along with these sources, we also look at the works of A. Greif and E. Gaidar, showing a critical discrepancy between the scholastic discourse and economic reality.

The various cuneiform texts dated back to Ur ш dynasty (2112 _ 2004B.C) this period have varied greatly in the knowledge of many aspects of Mesopotamia , and economic texts are one of the most important types of economic circulation and the most common in the Ur ш dynasty as economic texts formed the vast majority of those texts, the thing that indicates the prosperity of the increasing economic activity in this period as it provided us with information about the political conditions that the Ur ш dynasty underwent at that time and which ultimately led to its demise .

IN TWO CLASSIC ESSAYS, written in 1947 and published together in English translation under title Leisure, Basis of Culture, (1) German Roman Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper argues that source of human dignity is found in leisure, sphere of life free from work. He warns against recent philosophic and social tendencies that would reduce all human affairs to punctuated only with occasional necessary periods of rest or recreation. He claims that very survival of Western civilization depends upon an explicit and public restoration of respect for realm of human endeavor transcending notion of utility. Grounding his argument in what he sees as venerable and self-consistent tradition of philosophy and theology--epitomized in works of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, and undermined in key parts by modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Immanuel Kant--Pieper understands his position to be harmonious with that of Catholic Church's social magisterium, whose famous efforts to defend dignity of labor he interprets as demanding not so much exaltation of as such, but rather an extension of leisure to working classes. Though Pieper's has generally not received attention it merits, it has succeeded in deeply impressing numerous readers over years, includingT. S. Eliot, (2) C. S. Lewis, (3) and contemporary political and cultural minds such as Gilbert Meilaender, (4) Roger Scruton, (5) Ralph McInerny, (6) Roger Kimball, (7) James V. Schall, (8) and Thomas Hibbs. (9) Given Pieper's credibility among so many who share his concern for application of classical Christian intellectual patrimony to challenges of our day, it is interesting to consider one such prominent voice that, at least initially, does not appear to support Pieper's thesis. In 1981, Blessed John Paul II published encyclical letter Laborem Exercens. (10) In this writing, beginning from prior magisterial teachings on labor, John Paul seeks to stress more strongly than before centrality of not only to the modern 'social question,' but to good of human life as such. He describes as not only related to but even constitutive of man's vocation, dignity, and imaging of God in world, and defines so as to encompass seemingly all intellectual activities, which Pieper emphatically insists upon classifying as leisure and not work. In developing spirituality of work, John Paul goes so far as to call Jesus Christ a man of work and his Gospel the gospel of work, and seems to suggest that Christianity nullifies distinction between servile and liberal arts, whose recovery Pieper considers necessary condition for preservation of human freedom and flourishing (LE, Preface, nos. 1-3, 24-27; Leisure, II, IV). Can John Paul's interpretation of Christian wisdom on labor be squared with Pieper's reading of this same heritage? Or is former in effect refutation of latter? This paper will seek to answer this question through more detailed analysis of claims made by each author, considered in light of philosophic and theological tradition in which each sought to ground his thought. Pieper on Leisure and Threat of Total Work To grasp Pieper's case in defense of leisure and against progress of what he calls total work--a mode of existence in which overvaluation of leads to nearly complete neglect or suppression of leisure and goods it secures--we must first grasp precisely what he means by leisure and by work. Though in modern context leisure emerges as realm that must be preserved from imperious claims of Pieper draws his understanding of these terms from classical and medieval philosophy, which distinguishes between [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or otium--time spent on matters of intrinsic worth--and negative concept [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] or negotium, signifying lack or deprivation of such leisure. …

The article deals with semantic peculiarities, translation and functioning of legal terms in economic literature of various genres. The work discusses the concept of term meaning. The research also analyses the processes of terminological semantization and desemantization. The author states that legal and economic terms used in English factual material on economics occur as homonyms of legal ones and it is a result of transterminologization. The analysis of economic discourse shows that the terms occur and function in different documents, scientific works, media etc. It is also important to translate precisely both economic and legal terms considering some peculiarities of international documents writing. Moreover, the work determines that approximately 73% of the total number of legal terms in economic literature of different genres make up an integral part of economic discourse. This is due to their frequent use in the field of economic activity and the legal status of business operations. In this case, within the process of transmission into the economic terminology system these elements keep their legal meaning. Finally, the author presents examples showing that legal terms are often used in economic texts, they keep their legal meaning as well as they are translated in the same way as in a legal context.

In Aristotle’s thought, economic activity refers to a kind of praxis consisting in allocating the human and material means that constitute the oikos –the domestic community- to fulfil its natural ends: ensure both life and the means of life. By means of natural chrematistics -acquisitive art- families acquire the necessary means for this, which come from production and exchange. Families group together in the political community (polis) whose end is living well, according to virtues, among which justice is highlighted as the ‘complete virtue’. For its part, the Christian êthos regards every human act, internal and external, of this complete system (polis, oikos and chrematistics) as tending towards its ultimate purpose (beatitudo). In St. Thomas’s view, eternal law harmonizes necessity of irrational beings, loving God’s action (divine law), natural law, and the contingency of ‘human things’ where the economy is included. Trading activity is lawful if it is at the service of the oikos or polis and according to how is exercised, by following commutative justice. The family, political and religious character of human nature establishes what the natural-necessary consists of, embracing, apart from bodily goods, others derived from considering social status and the life chosen (civil, religious, active or contemplative). Economic activity based on this anthropological root has a specific place as a part of an ordered natural-legal totality that provides the economy with meaning and sufficient moral guidance.

In a famous 1967 article, Lynn White predicted the coming climate crisis and attributed responsibility for it to the medieval conception of man and nature. Indeed, the protection of natural resources was not a concern of medieval authors; yet Thomas Aquinas’s economic thought resonates with what we could today call an ecological approach to economic activity in at least two respects. On the one hand, such activity is characterised by sobriety, being directed towards the satisfaction of the need for necessary goods, the achievement of moderate gains and the enhancement of local supply. On the other hand, we note the unity of the process of satisfying needs, which begins with the reception of what the earth produces and the choice of the place of settlement according to the fertility of the land, and then develops into human economic activity oriented towards exchange. Justice in such exchange cannot be reduced to matters of justice in social relations, but concerns the conformity between the achievement of the satisfaction of needs and what is at its principle, namely the land provides.

Thomas Aquinas on Risk in Economic Activity

We present SENTiVENT, a corpus of fine-grained company-specific events in English economic news articles. The domain of event processing is highly productive and various general domain, fine-grained event extraction corpora are freely available but economically-focused resources are lacking. This work fills a large need for a manually annotated dataset for economic and financial text mining applications. A representative corpus of business news is crawled and an annotation scheme developed with an iteratively refined economic event typology. The annotations are compatible with benchmark datasets (ACE/ERE) so state-of-the-art event extraction systems can be readily applied. This results in a gold-standard dataset annotated with event triggers, participant arguments, event co-reference, and event attributes such as type, subtype, negation, and modality. An adjudicated reference test set is created for use in annotator and system evaluation. Agreement scores are substantial and annotator performance adequate, indicating that the annotation scheme produces consistent event annotations of high quality. In an event detection pilot study, satisfactory results were obtained with a macro-averaged F_1-score of 59% validating the dataset for machine learning purposes. This dataset thus provides a rich resource on events as training data for supervised machine learning for economic and financial applications. The dataset and related source code is made available at https://osf.io/8jec2/.

Laissez — faire and subjective underpinnigs of Murray Rothbard’s thought. Aristotle, St. Thomas, Spanish scholastics, John Locke and Frederic Bastiat as an inspirationThe subject of this article are origins of the subjectivist view of the economic activity of man, and pre-classic themes of political economy, which are the inspirations for Murray Newton Rothbard and his thought of anarcho-capitalism. These issues, being so rarely subject to scientific interest, are crucial point of reference for classical and neoclassical economics, and laissez-faire in general. Specific influence of natural law on the sphere of economic activity and human condition also implies abroader view of the role of state institutions in the thought of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, the scholastics of the Salamanca, John Locke and Frederic Bastiat, who combined the above-mentioned laws of nature and tradition of classical economics with subjectivity, so important in Austrian School of Economics and in anarcho-capitalist thought of Murray Newton Rothbard.

Summary Subject and purpose of work: The work presents the participation of religious ideas in shaping ethical attitudes in business. Its purpose is to indicate the need to consolidate ethical principles in economics with the use of various possibilities of social persuasion. Materials and methods: The research was based on literature studies, including religious, philosophical and historical literature. In particular, the method of induction was employed - from rules to conclusions. Attention was paid to the considerations of the method itself. Results: The development of research on the method required the recognition of the role of reason - autonomous with respect to faith. Findings of St. Thomas Aquinas (distinction between act and possibility, forms and matter, recognition of the causal linkage between events, negation of the dual truth about the same event) and W. Ockham (entities are not to be multiplied without necessity) are still valid today. Conclusions: Religious ideas support economic activity by propagating ethical norms of behaviour. This, in turn, evokes the view of J.M. Keynes about the important role of ideas as such. The significance of the Bible goes far beyond religious aspects.