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Ricoeur Economicus: Can Market Exchange Involve Mutual Recognition?

Mei, Todd (2012) Ricoeur Economicus: Can Market Exchange Involve Mutual Recognition? In: Johnson, Gregory and Stiver, Dan, eds. Paul Ricoeur and the Task of Political Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield: Lexington Books, Lanham, pp. 65-84. ISBN 978-1-4985-0354-9. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:51770)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739167731

Abstract

Poststructural criticisms of classical and neoclassical economic conceptions of human motivation and agency often include rejections of how market exchange is conceived to involve only the desires and rationality of a solitary human agent. While many of these criticisms are illuminating, they also tend not to offer a positive, constructive alternative.

In this chapter, I discuss the contributions of Paul Ricoeur's understanding of mutual recognition and how it can be used--albeit perhaps despite Ricoeur's own intention and critical assessment of economics--to retrieve a theory of exchange in which mutuality is possible.

My analysis consists of five sections. First, I recapitulate Ricoeur’s criticism of exchange. Second, I examine how the economist Richard Ebeling attempts to read mutuality in exchange through the hermeneutics of Ricoeur and why this attempt fails. Third, I revive Ricoeur’s broader conception of value in relation to care for the other. This allows me, in the fourth section, to correlate Ricoeur’s discussion of ethical value to exchange-value. Finally, I join exchange to mutual recognition via Ricoeur’s discussion of epieikeia (equity).

Item Type: Book section
Uncontrolled keywords: Ricoeur, exchange, mutual recognition, equity, Aristotle.
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Todd Mei
Date Deposited: 12 Nov 2015 14:40 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:21 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/51770 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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