Abstract
Money is described and the observation is made that money shares some characteristics of language. This leads to a distinction between redistributive societies, associated with authoritarian control, where power is transmitted magically, and monetised societies, based on democratic decision-making, where power is associated with money.
The connections between Anaximander’s concept of aperion and money are highlighted, leading to a discussion of the emergence of science and democracy. Plato, Aristotle and Euclid are discussed. The role of divination and its association with gambling in the ancient would are discussed in the context of Cicero’s De Divinatione. This is related to Cicero’s De Officiis, which discusses duties. Augustine’s Catholic theology is briefly reviewed, and connections to mathematics are highlighted.
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Johnson, T. (2017). The Genesis of Money and Its Impact. In: Ethics in Quantitative Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61039-9_2
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