A detailed analysis of oikonomia, an underexplored branch of knowledge in ancient Greek philosophy.
 
In this book, Étienne Helmer offers a comprehensive analysis of oikonomia in ancient Greek philosophy. Despite its similarity to the word “economy,” for the ancients, oikonomia named a branch of knowledge—the science of management—that was aimed at studying the practices we engage in to satisfy our needs. This began with the domestic sphere, but it radiated outward from the oikos (house) to encompass broader issues in the polis (city) as well. Helmer explores topics such as gender roles and marriage, property and the household, the acquisition and preservation of material goods, and how Greek philosophers addressed the issue of slavery in the ancient world. Even if we are not likely to share many of ancient thinkers’ beliefs today, Helmer shows that there was once a way of thinking of “economic life” that went beyond the mere accumulation of wealth, representing a key point of departure for understanding how to inhabit the world with others.

Étienne Helmer is professor of philosophy at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. David A. Auerbach has been a translator and editor for more than twenty-five years. He is a professor in the Graduate Program in Translation at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras.

Introduction

Part I Oikonomia as Knowledge
1 Oikonomia versus Economics
2 What Kind of Knowledge Is Oikonomia?

Part II Organizing Human Beings
3 Marriage, Household, and Community
4 Masters and the Enslaved in the Oikos

Part III Putting Things in Their Place
5 Acquisition and Wealth
6 Preservation and Balance
7 Self-Sufficiency and the Science of Proper Use

Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index locorum
Index