57
The Forgotten Ground
The modern proprietorial relationship with the land distorts our relationship with nature, reducing it to a mere ‘economic resource’, rather than our habitat shared with all other creatures (Leopold,
1949). This raises the question of extending ownership to minerals, plants or genetic material. It also
raises the question of the proper relation of research to the community and the ‘privatisation’ of
knowledge. Plato condemns the sophists for demanding payment for their teaching since learning
or wisdom cannot be a private possession nor a means of exploitation. By its very nature, knowledge
is infnitely distributable.
THE COMMODIFICATION OF NATURE
With the rise of economics as a discrete discipline in the seventeenth century, despite its early merits, there has been an ever-increasing tendency to view the world and society commercially. This
has been reinforced by the reductive mechanistic worldview of the Enlightenment. In his seminal
work, The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi traces how the market economy gradually divided
itself off from the medieval community and its traditions, where exchange of goods had been part
of the social structure. This led to the commodifcation of land, labour and money (Polanyi, 2001).
Thus, exchange became driven by proft-making and commerce became parasitic on community,
rather than enhancing the social structure and serving the common good. The medieval understanding of right use of property vanished from economic theory, preserved now only in Catholic social
teachings. 15 The commodifcation of land, labour and money is a clear example of the separation
of the ethical aspect of the community’s relation with the natural order. Merchandising became the
new narrative, while dwelling on the land became merely instrumental. 16
Plato and Aristotle regard the reduction of life to ‘money making’ as corrosive of human character and destructive of community. ‘The life of money making is a type of compulsory activity, and
it is clear that wealth is not the good being sought, since it is instrumental for the sake of something
else’, says Aristotle (2002: 1096a: 1–10). And even more strongly Plato says ‘thus, for the sake of
money, they try utterly to destroy private individuals and whole households and cities’ (Plato, 1980:
909b). What matters for the good of the polis is that its citizens value ‘justice in the soul’ above all
other possessions:
…nor, again, should I take counsel about it with the so-called diviners, who in one way or another will
advise me to take what was deposited in the earth. Because I would never beneft as much in money by
taking the property as I would increase in substance as regards virtue of the soul and what is just by not
taking it, I would thereby have acquired a better possession than that possession, and in a better part of
me, by honoring the acquisition of justice in the soul before that of wealth in property.
Plato (1980: 913b)
RECOLLECTING THE PRIMORDIAL HARMONY
The order of the soul and the proper human relation to the earth are, as we have seen, bound
together. Justice – the great measure which all societies in all ages recognise – has the peculiar character of being at once an inward virtue and an external virtue, relating human nature to itself and
to the world. It follows from this that if a society adopts an unjust relation with the natural world,
then citizens will suffer internal turmoil and discontent. Human fulflment and living in harmony
with nature are inextricably bound together. While the prevailing narrative fails to recognise this,
most ordinary people do recognise that we are part of a ‘great whole’ and ought to live in harmony
15 See Pope Leo xiii Rerum Novarum (1891), the frst encyclical to address the exploitation of labour, yet fawed with a contradictory mixture of Natural Law and Lockean economic theory. Nevertheless, later social encyclicals have preserved
the concept of right use.
16 See Melissa Lane, Eco-Republic: Ancient Thinking for a Green Age (2011), for a discussion of how adopting a Platonic
model of society can respond to the modern environmental crisis.
The Forgotten Ground
The modern proprietorial relationship with the land distorts our relationship with nature, reducing it to a mere ‘economic resource’, rather than our habitat shared with all other creatures (Leopold,
1949). This raises the question of extending ownership to minerals, plants or genetic material. It also
raises the question of the proper relation of research to the community and the ‘privatisation’ of
knowledge. Plato condemns the sophists for demanding payment for their teaching since learning
or wisdom cannot be a private possession nor a means of exploitation. By its very nature, knowledge
is infnitely distributable.
THE COMMODIFICATION OF NATURE
With the rise of economics as a discrete discipline in the seventeenth century, despite its early merits, there has been an ever-increasing tendency to view the world and society commercially. This
has been reinforced by the reductive mechanistic worldview of the Enlightenment. In his seminal
work, The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi traces how the market economy gradually divided
itself off from the medieval community and its traditions, where exchange of goods had been part
of the social structure. This led to the commodifcation of land, labour and money (Polanyi, 2001).
Thus, exchange became driven by proft-making and commerce became parasitic on community,
rather than enhancing the social structure and serving the common good. The medieval understanding of right use of property vanished from economic theory, preserved now only in Catholic social
teachings. 15 The commodifcation of land, labour and money is a clear example of the separation
of the ethical aspect of the community’s relation with the natural order. Merchandising became the
new narrative, while dwelling on the land became merely instrumental. 16
Plato and Aristotle regard the reduction of life to ‘money making’ as corrosive of human character and destructive of community. ‘The life of money making is a type of compulsory activity, and
it is clear that wealth is not the good being sought, since it is instrumental for the sake of something
else’, says Aristotle (2002: 1096a: 1–10). And even more strongly Plato says ‘thus, for the sake of
money, they try utterly to destroy private individuals and whole households and cities’ (Plato, 1980:
909b). What matters for the good of the polis is that its citizens value ‘justice in the soul’ above all
other possessions:
…nor, again, should I take counsel about it with the so-called diviners, who in one way or another will
advise me to take what was deposited in the earth. Because I would never beneft as much in money by
taking the property as I would increase in substance as regards virtue of the soul and what is just by not
taking it, I would thereby have acquired a better possession than that possession, and in a better part of
me, by honoring the acquisition of justice in the soul before that of wealth in property.
Plato (1980: 913b)
RECOLLECTING THE PRIMORDIAL HARMONY
The order of the soul and the proper human relation to the earth are, as we have seen, bound
together. Justice – the great measure which all societies in all ages recognise – has the peculiar character of being at once an inward virtue and an external virtue, relating human nature to itself and
to the world. It follows from this that if a society adopts an unjust relation with the natural world,
then citizens will suffer internal turmoil and discontent. Human fulflment and living in harmony
with nature are inextricably bound together. While the prevailing narrative fails to recognise this,
most ordinary people do recognise that we are part of a ‘great whole’ and ought to live in harmony
15 See Pope Leo xiii Rerum Novarum (1891), the frst encyclical to address the exploitation of labour, yet fawed with a contradictory mixture of Natural Law and Lockean economic theory. Nevertheless, later social encyclicals have preserved
the concept of right use.
16 See Melissa Lane, Eco-Republic: Ancient Thinking for a Green Age (2011), for a discussion of how adopting a Platonic
model of society can respond to the modern environmental crisis.