Risky exchanges: Price and justice in Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus

Pierre Januard (1)

1 PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques

Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus is concerned less with usury than with commercial exchange. Cross-referencing the economic aspects of forward selling and the role of the virtue of justice with Aquinas's concepts of sign and analogy leads us to revise our understanding of the just price, drawing a distinction between three different levels of reality (normative, market, and singular exchange), each of which gives rise to analytical, commercial, and strategic risks. This risk analysis grid offers a basis for a new reading of his later works, notably the Summa theologiae.

Mots clés: Thomas Aquinas; scholastics; just price; usury; forward selling; sign; analogy

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

Pierre Januard. Risky exchanges: Price and justice in Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus. 2021. ⟨halshs-03153997⟩