The small booklet "Nehmen ist seliger als Geben" (Taking is more blessed than giving) by Christoph Fleischmann also deals with the concept of justice, and is a great pleasure to read and think about. By way of introduction, the author asks himself, "What is a pineapple worth?" He describes his ambivalent experience of buying a pineapple as a student in the 1990s at a bargain price in an Indian market. Probably each and every one of us has asked ourselves the same questions about the fair price in a similar situation. So after just the first three pages, we are already in the middle of feverish deliberations!
In the following chapters, Fleischmann undertakes a highly stimulating and insightful walk through the history of exchange justice. He ranges from ancient Oriental ideas to Aristotle, the scholastics of the Middle Ages and early modern times, and Thomas Hobbes and the neoliberal economists. While trade had once been considered just when goods of equal value were exchanged, this notion had been replaced by the idea that a trade was just when both contracting parties agreed to it voluntarily, regardless of the actual value of the goods. This change had begun in the late Middle Ages and largely prevailed in the early modern period, which was related to the rise of capitalist forms of economics. Classical economists then elevated the free play of supply and demand to the status of a law of nature, as it were, which is still remarkably long-lived today. Different views of humanity underlie different ideas of justice.
What image of man and what idea of justice do we want to start from in the future? The question remains open, but Fleischmann's book gives hints on "how the idea of equality in exchange can enrich thinking about just forms of economic activity. Scanning past times for viable approaches to new ways of doing business seems all the more urgent in light of the state of our planet. Questions about the nature of climate or environmental justice will be with us for a long time to come. Fleischmann has hit the mark with this book.
Text: Claudia Wirthlin, Head of the Mission 21 Library
