MONEY AND THOUGHTLESSNESS : a genealogy and defense of the traditional suspicions of money and... merchants

In this book, Justin Pack proposes a genealogy of the traditional suspicion of money and merchants. This genealogy is framed both by how money itself has changed and how different traditions responded to money. Money and merchants became heavily debated concerns in the Axial Age, which coincided with the spread of coinage. A deep suspicion of money and merchants was particularly notable in the Greek, Confucian and Christian traditions, and continued into the Middle Ages. These traditions wrestled with a new dialectic of purity that also appears with the widespread use of money. How were these concerns dealt with politically, socially and philosophically? How did they change over time? How did medieval Europe deal with money and how did this inform modern governmentality? To answer these questions, Pack turns to Hanna Arendt's work. Arendt argues that one of the outstanding characteristics of our time is thoughtlessness. This thoughtlessness is related to how modern life, especially under neoliberalism, is increasingly structured by abstract systems, abstract calculative rationality, abstract relations, and the profit motive. Money both drives and embodies this machinery. The hyper-complex abstract systems of modernity discourage, to use Arendtian terms, "thinking" wonder, questioning everything) in favor of "cognition" (problem solving). Too often the result is thoughtless cognition--the ability to make things more productive and efficient paired with the incapacity to question and challenge the implications and morality of these systems Justin Pack is a Lecturer in Philosophy at California State University, Stanislaus, USA Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Money, Myths, and Thoughtlessness A Note About Anti-Semitism The First Debate: The Nature of Money and the Myth of Barter The Second Debate: The Cult of Neoliberalism and Economism Thoughtless Cognition Hyper-complex Abstract Systems and Thoughtless Cognition Money and Thoughtlessness Chapter 3: The Neolithic Revolution: From Social Currencies to Debt Money in the Pre-Axial Age Hunter-Gatherers The Neolithic Revolution: Agriculture and “Civilization” Sacrifice, Hierarchy, and Cosmic Imbalance “Primitive” Money Chapter 4: The Axial Age The Axial Age The Axial Age and Money The Suspicion of Money and Merchants Protean Money, Protean People The Axial Age, the Denunciation of Wealth, and the Praise of Poverty Robbing the Common World Ambiguities and Aporias of Money and Abstract Thought Conclusions Chapter 5: Animist Ontologies, Abstraction, and Slavery The Moral Limits of Markets in Contemporary Thought Anthropocentrism, Quantification, Abstraction Power in the Living Cosmos: Native American Ontology Animist Ontologies: Kinship with the Living Cosmos The Force of Things The Modern Ontology of Death Slavery, Abstraction, Disenchantment Initial Conclusions Chapter 6: Mastering Money: Usury, Governance and Science in Medieval Europe The Theological Power of Money and Christian Empire Mastering Money Money, Quantification, Proto-Science The Colonizing Empire of Homo Economicus Chapter 7: The Modern Attacks on the Traditional Suspicions of Money and Merchants Political Arguments Against the Traditional Suspicions of Money and Merchants Religious Arguments Against the Traditional Suspicions of Money and Merchants Aesthetic, Cultural, and Epistemic Arguments Against the Traditional Suspicions of Money and Merchants The Elided Moral Sources of Modernity Homo Economicus and Meritocracy as Epistemologies of Ignorance Money and Thoughtlessness Chapter 8: Against Homo Economicus: Mauss and Gift Cultures Mauss and Gift Cultures The Dialectic of Purity: Purely Economic Versus Pure Gifts Agonistic Gift Cultures “Pure” Gifts Receiving Gifts: Grace Gifts in a Living Cosmos Conclusions Chapter 9: The Hermeneutics of Suspicion and Contemporary Cynicism The Hermeneutics of Suspicion Versus the Modern Pretentions to Objectivity The Hermeneutics of Suspicion Versus Moral Purity Bourdieu: The Strategies of Gift Giving Zelizer Against Quantitative Money Defending Gifts from Cynicism Against Cynicism Chapter 10: Money and Thoughtlessness: Abstraction, Quantification, Adiaphorization Abstract Money, Quantitative World Abstraction Quantification The Numbers Game The Adiaphorizing Effects of Hyper-Complex Abstract Systems Chapter 11: Conclusions Thoughtlessness The Capitalist Schema Money and Thoughtlessness: Is There an Alternative? A Defense of the Traditional Suspicions of Money and Merchants Bibliography