Aquinas versus Marx Author(s): Alfred O'Rahilly Source: Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 31, No.

123 (Sep., 1942), pp. 317-324 Published by: Irish Province of the Society of Jesus Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30098067 . Accessed: 15/11/2013 20:06
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AQUINAS

VERSUS

MARX

BY PROFESSOR ALFRED 0tRAHILLY I. USE-VALUE 4LLOWING Aristotle,both Albert the Greatand ThomasAquinas assert that need (chreia,indigentia is the measureof all things.' this of modern they do not mean to maintainanythinganticipative By of for this would be inconsistent with the value; utility-theories quite other principles of the School.men. They are enunciating not a theory of value, but the presuppositionof any theory: what is com600 to all commoditiesis their capacityto satisfy human needs, their utility. In other words, at the very start they laid down a generalethicaljudgement; they would not admit that there is any economic isolate, even value. What makes for the culturaldestiny of man createstrue value; pseudo work createspseudo-value. There is an objectiveutility in things: con foi mity with order, the condition and limit for true work and therefore for the formationof true value. The economistdoes not thinkso :-For the economist is usefulwhichis wanted-whether the wantis everything andwhether the thingis wanted for its ownsakeor as worthyor reprehensible, a meansto somefurther end. The factthatpeopleareprepared and to acquire of theirhaving consume andnecessary in theeconomic thingsis the sufficient proof andLanguage, senseutility.-Fraser, Economic Thought 1g37,P. 77. as useful only those thingswhich So far are economistsfrom regarding are rationally required, that they have generallycome to define utility "not as the quality of being desired (or of yielding satisfactionsbut as with the quality of inducing purchase" (Fraser, p. 89). Consistently this view, economists should be quite indifferentto the fact that a large even.harmful part of modern economic activity is useless, superfluous, advertising, the creation of new artificialwants, waste, quantityat the expense of quality. The theologian-economistswho advocated charityand justice,who this life as a probation who regarded denouncedavariceand intemperance, and for the next, could not thus canonise buying selling. When they all kinds include mean to indiscriminately spoke of needs they did not of desires, every vagary of vanity or selfishness. The idea of needing involves some inherentrequirementof human nature,whetherbiological IAristotle, Ethic. v. 2, 10; Thomas, Ethic. a 25; Albortus, v. 5 (8),1133 Nic.Ethics ofthisorthat notbytheneed is measured v. 9. Buridan 1372adds: "Value (t circa withoneanother.'whocanexchange of those butby theneed of theaggregate man, Ethic. 5, q. 16.

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socialor cultural ; somethingobjectivelyand increasingly or psychological, with mathematical course of not precision-in the ascertainable-though coherent a and of science philosophy. As to the light of com600sense education, rests etc.-there health, fundamental needs-foods clothing, The Scholastics and in time of measure place. a is large uniformity rcard the productionof goods and services as destined for the satis needs.' faction of such ethicallycommendable This attitude involves three general consequences. (i There is a with which goods may be divided in humanneeds in accordance gradation for necessities lifer (b amenitiesrequiredfor social required into, say (a status and functionaleficiency, (c superfluities(amusements, luxuries, etc. This division-which is to be found in all the Schoolmen-implies that economicwealthis merelya means for satisfyingments fundamental needs which are strictly limited and after that must be subordinatedto man'sculturalrequirements. Thoughit sounds com600place, this view ideal which is based on of the modernmaterialistic is reallya repudiation the endless creation of artificial and the maximisationof production " is not natural riches for The needs. infinite,"says St. Thomas, appetite for a certainmeasureof them satisfies nature. But the appetite for richesis infinitesince it ministersto inordinateconcupiscence." artificial We who, as in this country,believein nationalismand self-sufficiencyas necessaryfor culturalindependenceand for freedom to live our own ideals,must makeup our minds to ac300t this philosophy or to abandon this ideal. It is to be feared that we do not sufficiently realise that patriotismmust be paid for, that our professed national and social with modern industrialismwhich is founded principlesare incompatible of the workers to serve the on international trade,on the proletarisation of artificialneeds requiring a complicationof rich, on the glorification gadgets and superfluities. We must, in other words, cultivate what as regards exterior things St. Thomas calls moderateness In all thingswhichare meansto an end, goodnessconsistsin a certain ine.sure . . Now exterior an goodshavethe statusof being usefultowards end . . Hence what is goodfor manas regards thesemustconsistin a certain exterior riches in a certain measure, in so far as they are by his seeking measure, for life according to his condition . necessary Thereare two waysin whichavarice can implyimmoderateness concerning exterior their acquirement and retention, things. (x Immediately,as regards i.e.in undue measure, Thisis directly a sin against one'sneighbour;for oneman cannot havea superabundance of exterior riches unless another in them, is deficient sincetemporal goodscannotbe simultaneously possessed by many (a It may in a mans interior attitude to riches . . This kindof implyimmoderateness avarice is a sin against oneself.-St. Thomas, Summa 2.2, q, ii8, a.I. "The takeroetoo following paragraphs view,as it would givevnry summariRed to farafield orto treat thesubject givemany in detail I mayrefer to my quotations article Thomas's of in Theory Property Studies, Sept 1920pp 37354 2 Sumrna 1 2 q 2 a I ad 3

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This does not imply that the Thomist system is purely static and stratified or-as Weber and others have contended-that poverty is valued in itself by Catholicsociologists.' For we see that St. Thomas condemns excessive wealth on two grounds: (a in so far as it causes social injustice and is not used for the com600 good, (b when it ICaLIS to a false valuation of life. (z There is a hierarchicalfinalism in nature; exterior goods are to aid man to attainhis development destined for human appropriation and end. Man is an autonomousperson; he is absorbedneitherby he is essentially humanitynor by the race nor by the State. Moreover a social being, the primarysocial institutionbeing the family,afterwhich come his profession,his townshis politicalcommunity. He has therefore a natural right to a sufficiencyto support himself and his familyand to enable him to work efficiently. This right is metaphysical, thoughnor mally it is conjoined with a correlativeobligationto work. But when neither work nor assistancein the absence of work sufficesto procure necessariesfor a man, then his right to life takes precedenceof the rich niants superabundance. For the right to superabundance, and therefore is based on a it is which is utilitarian, inequality, only generalutility; right historical. to the St. Thomas' According empirical, things which are by naturallaw due to the poorfor their some have in superabundance support." Or to quote some modernauthors The Gospelhas laid downthis new. . . . No one hasa right to the principle. fruitsof his owndomain of hislegitimate to the measure needs. ex300t according I a (I84 Lacordaire, Conferences whatever is overandabove andtheproper My ownsuperfluities, myownneeds of my life, I canreally, no longer consider as myownat all; theyarethe decency of all myfellows.-B.Jarrett com600property O.P.,Meditations forLayfcillc, 19r5, p. 129. of whatis sufficient is an absolute Only the proprietorship right. The pro on behalf a is onlya management of others, of whatis superabundant prietorship La and Trotabas, in Renard a stewardship.-Renard purelyfiduciary property, de friproprimtw sociale privfe,io, P. i8. fonction ( The State, actingfor the com600 good, has the rightand the duty to prevent injustice and excessive inequality and to providefor all the citizens. From which we deduce the necessity for planningand co ordinatingproduction either directly by the State or throughvocational bodies such as were the medievalgilds. muchto the conduces ulatio n of possessions The Philosopher says . thatthe reg it was he himself as observes, or nation. of the State Consequently, preservation sellhispossess should thatanyone of theheathen States forbidden bythelawin some 1"Bothsuperabundance who areto beavoided andbeggary ofriches bythoso Suneea 3. ofsin-S. Thomu, toliveaccording in sofaras theyareoccasions to" virtue, manfrom in sofarasit frees butonly in itself, is notgood q. 40 a. 3 ad 1 Poverty Contra iii, 133. to spiritual Thomas, what hisattention things."--S. impedes 2 2, q. 66,a. 7. Summa,

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ions ex300tto avoid a manifestloss. For if possessionswere to be sold to comeinto the handsof a few; so thatit they mighthappen indiscriminately, to become void of inhabitants....... for a Stateor a country necessary mightbecome in his which From Cajetan a.2. commentary deduces x.2, 105, Surma, q. Thomas, a churchnor anyoneelse should "that neither own of ordaining the advisability of land." amount a certain beyond mustbe madethat eachone is suppliedwith necessaries Provision according that, throughthe government's and state.... to his condition It is required for suitable supplyof necessaries thereshouldbe a sufficient living., industry, x. x3 and 15. De regimtne principum Thomas, II EXCHANGE It is in connectionwith an obscure passage in Aristotle' that Albert " and Thomas give the first sketch of a theory of value which remained supreme throughoutthe Scholastic period."' Aristotle, in one of the first mistakenapplicationsof mathematicsto economics, cs, deals with A a builderwho exchangesa house (a for a number of pairs of shoes (h made by B a shoemaker. Aristotlesays that commercialjustice requires that A A+b. . +a Whence he infers that A B b a B

Then, accordingto Greekgeometers,A and a, B and b, are said to have reciprocal proportionality (antipeponthos,contrapassum). From this unpromising bit of pseudo-mathematicsAlbert and Thomas . became of value pioneersin deducing the "labour and cost" ;.theory so manyshoesmust be givenfora house Thattheremaybe a just exchange, orforthe foodof oneman, the shoemaker as the builder orfarmer in labour -exceeds .... .for one house implies ies thatin shoesare given andexpenses Thatso. many. somesensethe shoesareequal to the house.-Thomas,. Ethic.v. g. That is objects are equal in value, arid.accordingly their exchange is just, if their productionrepresentsequal amounts of work and cost. There is not a trace of this view in Aristotle-how indeed could therebe Such a view is really based on the,.Christian ennoblement of labour and 1MO. v. 5, 1133 a 14. Aristotle Ethics to the as applying usespolen andpaschein actof exchange.. ButS. Thomas takes: in.hiscommoiIitary to the the termsasreferring of goods and. thereceipt of the of their He is clearly production thinking equivalent.. of his timeas the teohnai or artes of his text. Curiously bothGrant craft-gilds enough 'interpretation. andJackson withAquinas in thisfortunate Cf. but unhistorical agree H. Jackson, N co?nachear 97. TheFifthBoole of the, Ethics, 1879, p. au1l ; Theory of theJust.Brice, .1940, p. 38.

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the two Dominicans were rationalisingthe practiceof the craft-gildsof their time rather than interpretingtheir pagan predecessor; they were above. applyingthe generalsocial principleswhich have been summarised The view can be summed up in the words of a later writer:--be putonthings thatthose Sucha small whomake pricemight them asdocrafts themas do farmers, or thosewhotransport them men,or thosewhoproduce as do couldnot support themselves merchants, such decently by theirwork. Similarly an excessive price mightbe imposedthatordinary poormen,on whoselabours of life for themselves all must live, could not obtainthe necessaries .... Let for how muchhe mustsell his goodsin order himconsider to continue his state himselfcompetently in it; andhaving thusreasonably andto support estimated the priceof his products.-Henry his expensesand labour,let him measure of (t1397),De contractibus, p.r. cu andx?. Langensteirl There is no contradiction between this view andthe previousassertion of the primacy of human needs. Accordingto St. Thomas,the idea of utility dominates that of work in the con300tionof value. Thingshave value and exchangeabilitynot because they are the result of labourbut because they contain a desirable utility, they satisfy a legitimateneed. It is because of this that work is applied to producegoods; they are producedbecause they are valuable,they are not valuablemerelybecause they are produced; and there are natural objects which are valuable though they require little or no human collaboration. But when we come to considerwhat is called exchange-value, we are dealing with an entirely different con300t. We assume at the start that both a and b (two types of commoditiesor services have value in the sense of usefulnessfor humanlife. We then askhow much of b is equiva 't " lent tot or justly exchangeable with, how much of a. Then the val,ue of that amount of a is so much of b, so much of c, and so on; which we can compendiously express as so much 600ey or purchasing-power.' Use-value is the end of production as a physical or objectiveprocess ; (,finisopens), whatever be the intention of the producer(finisoperantis of the product. whereasexchange-value is the means of social distribution to St. Thomas, This " rationing" or systemof exchange-ratios is, according to be based on the equivalenceof " labour and expenses." Before we proceed to develop this idea, there is an objectionto be met for As to the textsfromthe Summa of St. Thomas, theyaretoo fragmentary of a justprice. us to consider of the determinants them as a complete exposition on the All one cansafelysayis thathe allows for utilityandforcertain outgoings towhich withanarticle in parting sacrifice partof theseller,aswellasforanyspecial ed.Demant, he is specially attached.-L.Watt,S.J.,in The 1). 6r. 1930, JustPrice, I Of course of in Spite water-which as air,sunlight, therearecommodities-such theirutility-value, theyneed haveno exchange-value; i.e.,being plentiful, ordinarily wemust then andpiped, notberationed.Butif water hasto beaccumulated paythose whoperform the function. X

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of trifles connectedwith This halting attitude with its exaggeration be to quite unjustified. St. the disposalof superfluities,seems to me Thomasneverprofessedto give a completepicture of the life of his time we must look outside his books into the ac300tedprinciples (exemplified in the townsand gilds whichhe had no occasionto discuss. And though he did not deal extensivelywith exchange-and then largely from the individualstandpointof the confessional-he clearlyenunciatedpertinent social principleswhich, in spite of many gaps and misunderstandings, can be tracedin growingconsistencyand claritydown the years from the Anno (1931 of Pius Swnina (1:),67-72of Aquinas to the Quadragesimo XI, VIEWOFEXCHANGE-VALUE III THEFUNCTIONAL The view expressedby the Schoolmenand largely embodied in gilds and assizesmay be called the functionaltheory of value. For it is based on the principlethat those who serve society have a right to a competent living. The ideal of a functionalsociety thus adumbrated may be describedin the words of a modernwriter: of wealth the acquisition at making which aimed A society contingent uponthe remuneration to to service which of social sought proportion obligations, discharge wasperformed, which firstnot no service anddenied it to thoseby whom inquired or achieve, or create but whattheycan make whatmenpossess mightbe calleda in sucha societythe mainsubjectof socialemphasis because Functional Society, of socialfunctions. But such a societydoesnot exist would be the performance like it has hung, idealin the modern evenas a remote world,thoughsomething beforemen'smindsin the past. Modern societiesaim at an unrealised theory, economic functions ex300tin moments rights,whileleavingeconomic protecting . . . . Such societiesmay be called to fulfilthemselves of abnormal emergency because theirwholetendency andpreoccupation andinterest Societies, Acquisitive is to promote theacquisition of wealth. . . . The secretof its triumph is obvious. to mento usethe powers It is aninvitation withwhichtheyhavebeen endowed orsociety, or relentless or meregoodfortune by skillor energy by nature egotism without whether thereis any principle should inquiring by whichtheir exercise be limited. of infiniteexpansion.-Tawney, [It is the enchantingvision TheAcquisitive Society, 191, P. 3rf. This quotation expressesthe medieval ideal, however deficient the practice. (The latter part reminds us of St. Thomas's assertionthat the " appetitefor artificialriches is infinite). Whoever,"says St. Thomas,' has no other meansof livingis bound to work with his hands, whatever, be his condition," " By work with one's hands," he continues, " must be understoodevery operation,,by which one can licitly earn oie's food." Speakingof the civil law againstbegging, he says 2 that "the law speaks of healthybeggarswho broughtno utility to the State but lived idly and what was due to other poor people." Apopular preacher. appropriated 2 2 q 187 a3. umrna Uontra De culluP4, c 7 2rnpugnante9

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of the time 1 says to his hearers: " Following the example of the bees, you ought to expel from a600g you those idle men who are unwilling to work but consume the goods of others." Such action has been taken " by some towns, it is a most laudable custom and is commended by God and by holy men." Janssen 2 cites a later writer as follows :we knowthat God and the worker On the testi600y of Scripture are the true ownersof all thingsthatservehumanuse. The Apostlesays: If a mandoesnot or beggars.-Abbot let himeat. All the othtrsaredispensers neither Trithe work, mius(JohnHeidenberg of TrittenheimO.S.B.(ti516), De laudeSaxoniae, 4. then sums Janssen up Onlythose who labour,be it with theirhandsor their heads,and those who areneedythrough no faultof theirown,haveanyclaim,according to the teaching of the Church,on the fruits of the earth. . . . All the othercanonical writers took the sameview that he [Henryof Langensteindid of work,as the sourceof all possession: workand not property was the bestower of all worthand dignity, therefore the fruitsof his work.-J. Janssen, andto the workman belonged History 2 (1928 93, 96 of the German People St. Thomas applies this principle to business in general, when he inquires whether a person can sell an article at a higher price than that at which he bought it. "If," he says, "a person sells at a higher price an article which he has improved, he is clearly receiving a reward for his labour." " He can lawfully do this because he has effected some improvement in the article, or because the price has changed owing to a difference of place or time, or because of the risk he undergoesin trans 3 Aquinas's general verdict on business is as porting the article." follows natural andnecessary Therearetwokindsof exchange.(i Thefirstis as-it-were of the needsof life. Such -goods and goodsor goodsand 600ey-on account but to householders andstatesmen belongsnot to business-men properly exchange of lifeforhouseorstate. (2 Thesecond whohaveto provide thenecessaries kindof eitherof 600ey and 600ey or of goodsand 600ey-is not for the necessaries to the Philosopher, this kindproperly life but in orderto seek gain. According pertainsto business-men. need. But the becauseit ministers to natural The first kind is praiseworthy of gainwhich in itselfit ministers to the desire because secondkindis blameworthy to had no limit . . . . But thereis nothingto preventgain frombeing directed or even honourable some necessary end, and thus businesswill be madelawful. it towards directs whoseeksa moderate whena person Forexample, gainin business the needy; orwhena person devotes ortowards of hishousehold thesupport helping of life be wanting for the publicgood,lest the necessaries to his himselfto business country ; and he seeksgainnot as an end in itself but as a stipendfor his work 2.2, q. 77, a. 4. laboris.)--.Summa, stipendium (quasi 1Jamesof Vitry(f 1240), An andotherworkers.-Pitra, Ser60081 to peasants 2 (1888 496. Noviasima alecta 2Geschichte the Werner desdeutschen ce81 (1913500. He alsocites Carthusian Vol of both," and andsoldiers arethe debtors Rolewinck i.e., of farmers (t 1502: " Clerics craftsmen. 3Summa, of a The idea merchant's as mercer 2.2, q. 77,a. 4, ad 1 andad 2. profit En.in Ps. 70,sermo occurs in St. Augustine: laboris i, 17. already x2

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We find a curious echo of this view six centuries later in Ruskin ....-is to provide for the The merchant's function-or manufacturer's nation. It is no morehis functionto get profitfor himselfout of that provision his stipend. This stipendis a due and necessary thanis a clergyman's function but not the objectof his life, if he be a true clergyman adjunct, ; any morethan his fee or honorarium is the objectof life to a true physician.-UntoThisLast (1862),Cassell'sed. 1907, p. 52. This is a high ideal. The mistake the medieval theologians made was to think that it could be kept alive solely by moral and religious suasion; they laid too little stress on organisation,on the necessity of a social structure to prevent the evil and avaricious from lowering the standardfor all. Nowhere in his voluminous writings does St. Thomas mention the gilds. But perhaps it is his subsequent readers who are to blame for not sufficiently realising the historical context which St. Thomas tacitly assumed and had no occasion to debate. Moreover, we can infer from almost casualreferencesthat he took for grantedsocial principles ac300ted in the society in which he lived. For him exchange was not an " What was introduced individualistic affair but social and reciprocal. for the com600 utility must not be more onerous to one rather than to the other." 1 True, he says that " human law could not prohibit whatever is against virtue, it is enough if it forbids what would destroy human intercourse."2 So he appears to have relied on the "market "-as exemplified in the Fair of Lagny 3--as sufficient to fix the equitable exchange-ratioor the just price. But it is only in later writers that we find explicit approbationof price-fixation by the community. "Would that prices were fixed for all things," says Gerson,' "as we see in the case of bread and wine," To quote Trithemius R again allarbitrary of prices in the caseof articles In a well-governed community raising be peremptorily should merchants of foodandclothing ; in timesof scarcity stopped of commodities canbe compelled to sell themat fairprices... . whohavesupplies the rightpricesare fixedand the right wages In everywell-regulated community to his or her for labour, so thatno one maycometo wantandeveryone according foodandclothing.---Trithemius, De Iudaeis ig : Janssen, mayhavesufficient position I (19I3 512. Geschichte A F D O'RAHILLY (To be continued

1Summa, 2.2, q. 77, a. i . ' Ibid., ad x. " on Credit "-Irish Eccles. Feb.1928. Seemy article, St. Thomas Record, i 706iii. 175. 'De contractibus ig : Opera

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