Lecture
LCHP Colloquium "From Virtue to Money: The Concept of Trust in Stoic Ethics"
- Date
- Thursday 22 May 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.28
The Leiden University Centre for the History of Philosophy is pleased to announce a lecture by Dr. Aistė Čelkytė.
Aistė Čelkytė is a postdoctoral fellow at LUCAS in Leiden and a senior research fellow at Vilnius University. She works on ancient philosophy, science and their intersections. She is the author of The Stoic Theory of Beauty (2020).
Abstract
I begin this paper by looking at the money-virtue analogy in Epictetus' Discourses 3.3. First, I briefly argue that this odd comparison has to be interpreted against the background of Roman imperial monetary policy and the shift from commodity towards fiduciary money. The concept of trust, therefore, is crucial for understanding why virtue is money-like. I then unpack the Stoic theorisation of trust, arguing that this somewhat overlooked concept plays a foundational role in what could be called Stoic social epistemology, including topics ranging from the political society of the wise to ordinary exchanges at the marketplace.
All are welcome