Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century: Money, Market Exchange, and the Emergence of Scientific Thought

287 Pages·1998·1.906 MB·English

by  Joel Kaye

mmmm
This page intentionally left blank
A cluster of intellectual innovations appearing within scholastic natural
philosophy in the fourteenth century played a critical role in the future
development of scientific thought. Beneath these innovations lay a
profoundreconceptualizationofnature.Thisbookattemptstoanalyzethe
componentsofthisreconceptualizationandtouncoverthepressuresand
concernsthatshapedit.Todoso,itlooksbothwithintheuniversityand
beyondit,tothe monetizedsocietythatsurroundedandsupportedit. It
argues that the transformation of the conceptual model of the natural
world within scholastic natural philosophy c. – was directly
linked to the social and economic process of monetization that trans-
formed European society over this same period. It illustrates how those
perceptualshiftsessentialtotheemergenceofmodernscientificthought–
theshiftstowardquantification,geometricrepresentation,multiplication,
relativity,probability,mechanisticorder,anddynamicequilibrium–were
groundedintheexperienceandcomprehensionofmonetizedsociety.
The book’s earlier chapters analyze scholastic writings on economic
questions (particularly those found in commentaries on Aristotle’s dis-
cussionof exchangeinNicomacheanEthics.), focussingonthesix new
categories of analysis and description devised by philosophers to make
senseoftheir experienceofmonetizedsociety.Theconcludingchapters
investigatethetransmissionofphilosophicalinsightsfromthecomprehen-
sionofthemonetizedmarketplacetothecomprehensionandconstruction
of nature. They reveal how intellectual developments pioneered within
each of the six new categories of economic analysis lie at the base of
the most forward-looking conceptual advances within scholastic natural
philosophy– advances that proved to be crucial to the further develop-
mentofscientificthought.
mmmm
CambridgeStudiesinMedievalLifeandThought:FourthSeries
ECONOMY AND NATURE
IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
CambridgeStudiesinMedievalLifeandThought
Fourthseries
GeneralEditor:
. . 
LeverhulmePersonalResearchProfessorofMedievalHistory,UniversityofSheffield
AdvisoryEditors:
. . 
ProfessorofMedievalHistory,UniversityofCambridge,andFellowofChrist’sCollege

ProfessorofEarlyMedievalEuropeanHistory,UniversityofCambridge,andFellowofNewnhamCollege
TheseriesCambridgeStudiesinMedievalLifeandThoughtwasinauguratedby
G.C.Coultonin.ProfessorD.E.LuscombenowactsasGeneralEditorof
theFourthSeries,withProfessorsR.B.DobsonandRosamondMcKitterickas
Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval
scholarsoverawiderangeofhumanendeavourextendingfrompoliticalecon-
omytothehistoryofideas.
Foralistoftitlesintheseries,seeendofbook.
ECONOMY AND NATURE
IN THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY
Money, market exchange,
fi
and the emergence of scienti c thought
JOEL KAYE
BarnardCollege
         
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
©Joel Kaye 2004
First published in printed format 1998
ISBN 0-511-03849-6 eBook (Adobe Reader)
ISBN 0-521-57276-2 hardback
ISBN 0-521-79386-6 paperback
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments page ix
 
   :  
     
  
       
 
Mathematics and the geometry of exchange 
Equality, the mean, and equalization in exchange 
Money as medium and as measure 
Relation and the relativity of value in exchange 
The social geometry of monetized society 
Negative attitudes toward money and exchange 
      
    :
     
Mathematics and the geometry of exchange 
Equality, the mean, and equalization in exchange 
Money as medium and as measure 
Relation and the relativity of value in exchange 
The social geometry of monetized society 
Common valuation in exchange 
A problem introduced by the early commentaries 
vii
Contents
       
   
Equality in usury theory 
Equality in just price theory and market exchange 
Twomodelsofeconomicequalization:HenryofGhentand
Godfrey of Fontaines 
       
     
 
Equality, the mean, and equalization in exchange 
Mathematics and the geometry of exchange 
Money as medium and as measure 
Relation and the relativity of value in exchange 
Common valuation in exchange 
The social geometry of monetized society 
       
  -  
-   
Money as medium and as measure 
     
    -
    
The social geometry of monetized society 
Mathematics and the geometry of exchange 
Equality, the mean, and equalization in exchange 
Common valuation in exchange 
Relation and the relativity of value in exchange 
Bibliography 
Index 
viii