From Babylon to Bitcoin: some philosophical reflections on the ontology of money

This (somewhat polemical) paper focuses on the ontological nature of money and draws comparisons to the ontological status of gauge freedom in physics. The parallels allow us to move beyond the social constructivist theories of Searle et al., and thereby avoid some pitfalls with such views. Since we...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dean Rickles
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2023-12-01
Series:Rivista di Estetica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/estetica/9656
Description
Summary:This (somewhat polemical) paper focuses on the ontological nature of money and draws comparisons to the ontological status of gauge freedom in physics. The parallels allow us to move beyond the social constructivist theories of Searle et al., and thereby avoid some pitfalls with such views. Since we have a reasonably good grasp of the ontological features in the physics context, we can pull back lessons from there onto the economic domain. In general, we find that this approach offers a nice lens through which to view the ontological peculiarities of money.
ISSN:0035-6212
2421-5864