The Economic Theory of the Scholastics as a Contractual Analysis

Trifilio Sylvain ()
Additional contact information
Trifilio Sylvain: ICES, La Roche-sur-Yon, France

Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, 2018, vol. 24, issue 1, 6

Abstract: The doctrine of the “just price” is more than often described as the core of the “economic” thinking of the Scholastics (de Roover 1958; Baldwin 1959; Wilson 1975; Worland 1977). In fact, one could hardly contest that the notion occupies a place of high importance in the economic reflections of the Medieval Doctors. It is of no doubt that their study of economic reality led them to call up very frequently the said notion of “just price”. Yet the insistence with which modern historiography has itself treated this – central but particular – element of the Scholastic economic thinking conceals, to our opinion, some of its important sights and interests. An “objective” approach of the scholastic theory seems to command such an interpretation. But why is the phrase “just price” so often used and developed by the Doctors? Such a simple question cannot be answered simply by focusing on the notion. From a more “methodological” point of view, just price appears only like the final result of a complex argumentation. Little attention has been given to the fact that (1) the issue at stake is less a problem of correctness in limited bargaining than a general question of social justice; (2) the method used to deal with this vast subject in the field of economic relations is a systematic “contractual” analysis. The second point forms the main theme of this paper.

Keywords: contractual analysis; economics; European economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jeeh-2018-0005 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:jeehcn:v:24:y:2018:i:1:p:6:n:4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/jeeh/html

DOI: 10.1515/jeeh-2018-0005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines is currently edited by Pierre Garello

More articles in Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().