Actually I was just reacting to your use of the term "real" money... I'm sure there have been transactions/exchanges since time immemorial, I would be surprised if it wasn't found to be primate behaviour and not exclusively human.
Abstracting from those exchanges to understand them as involving exchanges of "value" and not simply goods probably followed along in due time, and likely was more or less contemporary with similar processes around language (and may even have been associated). But few even now I would guess would say there was much "catness" (i.e. "reality") about the word "cat", beyond the social convention of all of us agreeing to call a particular set of observable experiencable characteristics a "cat". MG -----Original Message----- From: Keith Hudson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: April 21, 2002 9:58 AM To: Michael Gurstein Subject: RE: Reality of money (was RE: Computers: our downfall (wasRe: Privatizing the Public: Whose agenda? At What Cost?) At 08:18 21/04/02 -0400, you wrote: >Hmmm.... > >Rocks are "real", we can stub our toes on them; coins are "real", we can >choke on them, or throw them at dogs urinating on our lawns (forgive me >Bishop Berkeley). "Money", like other forms of totem worship is a social >convention. > >MG ... Money has been real for at least 5,000 years, and very probably longer, ever since man traded beyond the confines of his local community. Except for natural disasters like droughts or famines, different forms of money have held their value for very long periods of time (except when government intervenes). If, as it now turns out, you want to reinterpret all known history and all known cultures as having been prey to a social convention and not an economic necessity, then so be it. KH __________________________________________________________ Writers used to write because they had something to say; now they write in order to discover if they have something to say. John D. Barrow _________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, Bath, England; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________
