OIKONOMIA REDEFINED

Abstract

The paper argues that oikonomia was defined by the ancient Greek philosophers as a sphere in which man, when faced with excessive means, acquires a theoretical and practical prudent disposition in order to comply with his needs and so as to generate a man-made surplus that is to be found outside economy’s boundaries. In order to extricate this meaning, I focus on how the following categories are presented in ancient texts dedicated to the study of the oikonomia in its meaning of household management: i) oikonomia’s form of knowledge; ii) the essence of wealth and its end; and iii) the origin of the excess that appears in the economic sphere.