On money as a conventional sign: Revisiting Aristotle’s conception of money

Abstract

Regardless of the historical evolution of money, some passages of Aristotle's works shed light on its meaning and nature. This paper will attentively consider these passages. The first section presents Aristotle's thoughts on money. While the second section analyses money as a unit of measurement, the third section deals with its conventional nature, and the fourth draws from the theories of signs elaborated by John Poinsot and Charles Peirce to expand the explanation of the nature of money as a sign. The conclusion considers three levels of consideration of money based on Aristotle's thoughts: (1) universal abstract money, (2) instantiated in specific currencies, and (3) the actualization of their properties and potentialities in actual economic dealings.