The Language of οἰκονομία. Reciprocity and Exchange in Aristotle’s Theory of Political Justice

The guiding assumption of this essay is that concepts derived from Aristotle’s discussion of οἰκονομία are employed in the Nicomachean Ethics as analytical tools to clarify some of the structural dynamics underlying the emergence of stable justice in the πόλις. More specifically, I will explore Aristotle’s use of a particular theoretical image – the exchange of goods – and argue that it serves as a ratio cognoscendi for understan-ding his conception of a stable political justice. In the first part I address the topic of justice based on proportional reciprocity, trying to outline aspects of affinity to and differentiation from distributive and rectificatory justice. In the second part I try to show that exchange can be conceptualized as a theoretical model functional to a better understanding of dynamics of professional interdependence in the πόλις.