Xenophon on Money and Its Right Use

Xenophon (ca. 430–353 BCE) was a Greek soldier and prolific author engaged in experiments with different literary genres and a member of the Socratic circle. He is well known for his leadership theory as well as his reflections on economic phenomena—thematic lines that meet in the theory of value that underlies his conception of money. This theory, which I call the “doctrine of right use,” is clear and simple: things, including money, only have value for someone who knows how to use them properly. Centering knowledge as the locus of value, the doctrine of Right Use preemptively annuls any meaningful distinction between use value and exchange value. The central opposition in Xenophon’s value theory is therefore not between use and exchange, but between possession and use. What is less self-evident are the conceptions of “use” and “utility” on which the doctrine is built. In contrast to post-Enlightenment “split ontology” notions of use as an instrumental comportment, we find an understanding of “use” in terms of an interdependence of subject and object at the heart of Xenophon’s economics and his conception of money. The right use of money, and knowing how to use it, means being attuned to the world around us.