Introduction

This chapter introduces both volumes of The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Money, the first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary collaboration to survey the role of money in the history of ideas. The introduction begins by contrasting the present neglect of money as a topic of philosophical inquiry to the prevalence of money throughout the history of philosophy, back to its very inception. The object of these volumes is the preliminary one of trying to establish a framework for investigating the various relations between philosophy and money by taking a broad view at the variety of ways money has been both the object of and condition for philosophical reflection. Given that both “philosophy” and “money” are complex phenomena with ranging histories and a wide array of present associations, this introduction offers a variety of typologies of what “philosophy and money” may be, drawing examples from a variety of chapters across the two volumes. In addition, this introduction underscores the reasons why the exploration of the interplay between philosophy and money is interdisciplinary in nature, and it ends by addressing a number of problems, challenges, and limitations of a project that spans across history, culture, and academic discipline.