Virtual Socrates Colloquium – Étienne Helmer: “Money in the soul: Socrates on psychology of money in Plato’s Republic”

The International Society for Socratic Studies is pleased to announce the schedule for the Virtual Socrates Colloquium 2025-2026.
You can see the schedule HERE

Notice that there is no need to register and all you need to do is join the following Zoom link: https://biu-ac-il.zoom.us/j/8062705537

The International Society for Socratic Studies is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Étienne Helmer from the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on the topic

Money in the soul: Socrates on psychology of money in Plato’s Republic

Abstract: In this communication,  I purport to show how the monetization of the economy in ancient Greece contributed to the emergence of what could be called an “economic psychology” in two closely related senses: first, in the broad sense of “economic mentality,” i.e., a set of behaviors and ways of thinking motivated by the desire for wealth, now understood as profit or gain (kerdos); second, and this is the more specific aspect I will focus on in this paper, in the narrower sense of “psychic configuration” (and discourse on this configuration), in that the widespread use of money led philosophers to isolate and conceptualize a power of the soul to account for behaviors involving money, profit, or any economic enterprise, such as the desire to accumulate money, the calculation of risks and benefits when embarking on an enterprise, or the comparison of gains (kerdos) and losses (zêmia). In this second sense, this economic psychology rests on a what can be called a psychology of money.
To support my claim, I will first outline how, in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, the appeal of wealth mainly referred to moral conduct examined in terms of its social or collective repercussions, rather than its psychological dimension, and that it was considered and sought after as a symbol of a higher value, rather than for its own sake as a gain or profit. Secondly, I will show that a general shift that began in the 6th century and culminated in the 4th century, driven by the spread social acceptance of metal currency, made the desire for wealth conceived as gain, and more specifically metal currency, a psychological trait giving rise to reflections on the composition or structure of the soul. Finally, I will examine this latter phenomenon in more detail, taking Plato’s Republic as a case study of how of the psychological, socio-political, and economic dynamics depend on a framework of intelligibility strongly marked by a monetary dimension.

Bio: Etienne Helmer is senior researcher associated at the department of philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela. His main area of research deals with ancient philosophy on economic topics, and more broadly with ancient Greek social, economic and political thought.