Posted in Philosophy on April 29, 2013|
Leave a Comment »
One of the most common examples of an object of thought (a “noumenon”) that we believe we each come into contact with every day is: [money].1 What are the salient antecedents (i.e. influencing events) that “cause” money? It usually starts with an exchange. Not just any exchange, however. It has to be an exchange in which someone does not have something the other person wants right now. For example, if I want a “pig” and you want a “dog,” and you have a [pig] and I have a [dog], we just exchange and go home. No [money] and no “money.” But if I don’t have the dog and I want the pig, you might just give me the pig and say “hit me up next time, ok?” And I might say, “sure no problem!” Then I come back in a month and give you the dog. So far no [money], just a notion of [value] and [promise] and [duty]. That is, “I ought to give you a dog in a reasonable amount of time, when the value of a dog is still roughly equivalent to the value of a pig.” We typically sum [value], [promise], and [duty] into a concept of [debt]. If I don’t give you the dog within a certain amount of time, you might say, “dude, you owe me a dog!, pay up please!”
“Money” then is simply a way of expressing [debt] which is an expression of [value], [promise] and [duty]. Instead of relying on my promise, you might say, “you know, I’m moving in a month, so I won’t be able to collect on the debt right away, so can you write me an ‘IOU’ so I could come back next year and get my dog?” You move away and unfortunately never return to my town. But the piece of paper I signed over to you still helps you out, because later in the year, you meet Roger, who has a dog, and you say, “I’ll give you this IOU from Fred in the next town, he’s good for a dog or something equivalent. I know you go there all the time, can you give me the dog now, because I don’t think I have anything else to trade you for it?” They trade, but then, as bad luck has it, Roger stops traveling to my town shortly thereafter. Luckily, however, he is able to find someone else in the town to accept the “money” that started with our virtual swap of a dog for a pig. The piece of paper is not [money] because [money] is simply a concept that is never experienced without “money” in the room. But it works very well anyway, thank you very much.
1 One of the purposes of this essay is to practice using [ ] to designate a noumenon and “ ” to designate a phenomenon. To see if the notation accomplishes anything useful.
Read Full Post »