Aristotle, Usury, and Nature
Aristotle, Usury, and Nature

Summary/Abstract: At Pol. 1.10 1258a40-b8 Aristotle condemns usury as unnatural. There has been little sustained discussion on exactly what he means. Is the usurer like Dr. Frankenstein, employing human ingenuity to unduly interfere with the external nonhuman order? Or is it human nature that is being violated? If so, how is this different from any unethical action, which fails to be in accordance with the natural dictates of reason? The goal of this paper is to achieve some clarity on these issues, on the basis of Aristotle’s more general accounts of money, politics, nature, and the unnatural.

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