Economics for everyone (episode eighteen)—History, legend, and myth
By John F. Sase, Ph.D.
Gerard J. Senick, senior editor
Julie G. Sase, copyeditor
William A. Gross, researcher
“Driving that train /high on cocaine /
Casey Jones / you’d better watch your speed /
Trouble ahead / trouble behind /
And you know that notion / just crossed my mind”
—American Songwriters Robert Hunter (Lyrics) and Jerry Garcia (Music), Recorded by The Grateful Dead, Workingman’s Dead (Warner Bros., 1970)
In our previous episode, we explored some of the allegorical writings of Plato. Specifically, we focused on his tale of the City of Atlantis. We asked “Should we consider the story of Atlantis as History, Legend, or Myth?” Also, we addressed how the teachings of Plato remain relevant to the fields of Law and Economics more than two millennia after they were written.
In this episode, we will explore the influence of Plato further as we discuss the relevance of his tales and teachings, which echo through the ages. We will explain his storytelling approach to teaching as we delineate the direct influences of complementary realms of History, Legend, and Myth on modern Law and Economics. Within this context, we will outline an old case of Wrongful Death as an example of how History evolves into Legend and onward into Myth.
Law and Economics
The more that we go back in time, we find that thought within these two academic/practical fields has remained intertwined and has stayed so until the present. Plato delivered exceptional discourses, especially in his writings contained within “Laws” and “The Republic.” As an economist, I (Dr. Sase) will focus more on material in the second of these works.
We do not know exactly when the concept and term Economics was addressed by Socrates (470 – 399 BCE), the Greek philosopher who was the mentor of Plato, and others. However, we find that the name of this field evolved from two Ancient Greek words. The first, oeco, which descends from the Greek oiko and perhaps other ancient languages, means the “house” or “household.” The other root word appears in Ancient Greek as nomikos, which stands for “custom, law, and management.” Therefore, the combined word oikonomikos evolved to mean “the customs and laws of managing a household” and to be pronounced as “Economics” in modern English.
The writing of Economics by Plato appears in his work “The Republic,” in which he discusses the organization and management of the State, the division of labor, the institution of slavery, the concept of Communism, and other relevant ideas. In sequence, these topics include:
• The Origin of the State: The State arises from the need to maintain society. Plato suggests that no one exists as self-sufficient and therefore takes a helper for one purpose or another. When helpers and their partners gather together in one habitat, Plato terms this collective body of inhabitants as the State. Therefore, he finds that economic consideration forms the basis of the State.
• Division of Labor: Plato advocates the division of labor in undertaking economic activities. This division arises from supposed natural differences among human beings. Plato focuses on the increase of efficiency and advocates an increasing amount of specialization for production.
• Communism: Plato desires the abolishment of class conflict within society. He supports a propertied community while desiring the abolishment of evils within the caste system through his concept of Communism, which promotes a harmony of interest in the society.
• Division of Society: Plato divides an entire society into major parts. These parts include the ruling and ruled classes, such that those privileged to rule include the philosophers and aristocrats, who enjoyed common ownership of property, and the ruled class, which includes city workers and agricultural laborers who hold no right to property.
• Slavery: Plato considers slavery as both a permanent and necessary institution throughout the history of humankind. However, he desires humane treatment for those bound.
• Value, Money, and Interest: Plato considers that producers should not charge a price higher than the value of the commodity. He considers money as not only a medium of exchange but also as a standard of value. In respect to interest, he does not favor it for payment against loans.
Plato approaches Law and Economics in combination, rather than as two separate fields. Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE), the Greek philosopher and polymath who was the student of Plato, and possibly Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BCE), the Greek teacher and writer who was the successor of Aristotle, carried on the work of Plato through their writing of The Economics, an expansion of his philosophy.
History, Legend, and Myth
The writings of Plato reflect an understanding of the history of his time and its near past. However, in the Fourth Century BCE, written history appears scant in respect to our modern standards. We do know that Plato (Platon in Greek) lived from 428/427 or 424/423 through 348/347 BC), became an Athenian philosopher during the Classical Age of Ancient Greece, and founded the Platonist School of Thought along with his Academy, which emerged as the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
Due to the lack of surviving written accounts, we know little about the early life and education of Plato. It appears that he belonged to an influential aristocratic family.
According to disputed tradition, Ariston, the father of Plato, traced his descent from Codrus, the king of Athens, and Melanthus, the king of Messenia (Macedonia). Further back, history turns to legend, and legend blurs into mythology: through Codrus, Plato appears to have descended from the mythological deity Poseidon, the god of the sea (though this last piece of genealogy seems a bit fishy).
Within his allegorical tales, Plato uses a series of complex storytelling techniques that lead readers to assume that greater complexity suggests historical truth. By Googling “City of Atlantis,” readers will find a plethora of written material and drawings that often take fantastic flights of fancy from the words of Plato. He describes Atlantis as a city of excess that led to its demise and caused it to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Plato uses his story of Atlantis as a morality tale for the Athenians of his time.
However, Atlantis has come to symbolize what happens to a society when it becomes dissolute.
In my research on Urban Economics, which found its way into the preceding episode of this series, I applied spreadsheet mathematics in an attempt to determine what Plato actually meant in his tale. Taking the 121 different numerical values used by Plato in his works “The Republic” and “Timaeus,” I discovered that the resulting 14,641 (i.e. 121 squared) intervals within the spreadsheet form a 99%+ symmetric calculation table. Though this chart appears profound, I recommend to our readers interested in real-estate investment to pass on the unique opportunity of Atlantis.
(Continued) ...
