Chrematistics and the compression of space and time

Abstract

In addition to the new immaterial economy associated with the commodification of information and knowledge, there is another, equally immaterial, conceived as the accumulation of money, which has accompanied us for millennia. The distinction made by Aristotle between economics and chrematistics (and the tendency he identified to dissolve the former into the latter) is evidence of its ancientness. The dissolution of economics into chrematistics, compressing space and time, which is recurring in the history of ideas and in history itself, besides being a trend that has never been realised is no less corrosive for society.