World 12 · Life & deep thinking
Philosophy of money
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The big questions — with several answers, and room to think.
By the end of this world
You will meet the main ways thinkers have answered money’s big questions, and begin to form your own view.
Philosophy of money
- What is money actually for? — Aristotle drew a line between wealth for living well and wealth for its own sake. It still divides people. (8 min · Deep)
- Can money buy happiness? — Philosophers, psychologists and economists have given different answers. Their disagreements are instructive. (8 min · Deep)
- How much money is enough? — Keynes expected people to stop working so hard once they were rich enough. Why didn’t they? (7 min · Deep)
- What makes something valuable? — Labour, usefulness, scarcity or desire? Classical and modern economics answer differently. (8 min · Deep)
Ethics of wealth
- Is wealth morally neutral? — Is being rich good, bad or neither? What traditions say about wealth and virtue. (8 min · Deep)
- Should people maximize wealth? What is a good life? — Where more wealth fits in a good life — and where it starts to crowd other things out. (8 min · Deep)
- Should consumption be minimized? — Arguments for consuming less, arguments against, and the space between them. (7 min · Deep)
Freedom and status
- Does more money create more freedom? — Freedom from, freedom to, and whether financial independence is the same thing as being free. (8 min · Deep)
- Why do humans link money and status? — From display to signalling: why wealth became one of the ways people rank each other. (7 min · Deep)
Inequality, society and what we owe
- Does economic inequality matter? — Some say only poverty matters; others that the gap itself does harm. The case for each. (8 min · Deep)
- What do we owe other people? — Family, strangers, society: the different answers to what our money owes anyone else. (7 min · Deep)
Debates & perspectives
- Can someone be wealthy without being rich? — Separating having a lot of money from having a rich life — and asking whether they can come apart. (7 min · Deep)
- How economics learned about the human mind — The debate between the “rational” model of classical economics and the behavioural view that replaced parts of it. (8 min · Deep)