Analiza i Egzystencja


ISSN: 1734-9923     eISSN: 2300-7621    OAI    DOI: 10.18276/aie.2025.71-03
CC BY-SA   Open Access   DOAJ  ERIH PLUS  DOAJ

Issue archive / 71 (2025)
Konstrukcja kapitalistycznej podmiotowości w filozofii pieniądza Johna Locke'a
(The Construction of Capitalist Subjectivity in John Locke's Philosophy of Money)

Authors: Damian Winczewski ORCID
Politechnika Gdańska. Katedra Filozofii i Metodologii Nauk
Keywords: money capitalism John Locke's philosophy colonialism freedom
Whole issue publication date:2025
Page range:22 (45-66)
Klasyfikacja JEL: P10
Cited-by (Crossref) ?:

Abstract

In this article, I reconstruct Locke’s philosophy of money based on both his major political works such Two Treatises on Government, as well as his economic works. I take up the problem of the ambiguous nature of money in the context of the relationship between natural law and social contract. It turns out that money is crucial for the accumulation of labour value and its transfer to other goods contributing to the construction of social welfare. However, money itself is a contingent, unnatural product of social convention, as a result of which its existence contributes to the spread of amoral and sinful transgressions. Locke’s response was to give money a stable value by tying it to bullion and strictly regulating the rate of interest by disciplining and punishing the lower classes, in line with the moral foundation of his political philosophy. Locke’s ideas find their continuation in contemporary approaches to monetary policy.
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