Dal volgare all’universale. Un passaggio nella traiettoria moderna del concetto di interesse

he article aims to reconstruct a crucial passage in the modern history of the concept of interest: the overcoming of the dichotomy between material interest - interesse di roba - and symbolic interest - interesse d'onore . We will first analyze how this dichotomy, whose origin can be traced back to Aristotle, plays a role of social differentiation between nobles and people within the political theory of the sixteenth century. Then, we will analyze the different steps of the crisis of this dichotomic scheme in the 17th and 18th centuries. Specifically, we intend to show how this dichotomy is challenged by two converging processes: a process of universalization - each individual and each group is driven by its own interest - and a process of reduction - interest coincides with economic interest. The conclusion of the article aims to show how the convergence between the two processes remains incomplete in the historical span examined, even in those authors who have radically overcome the dichotomy between material interest and symbolic interest. The example examined for this purpose is Bernard de Mandeville's theory of interest.