The Metaphysics of Social Collectives

Once established the metaphysic nature of the economy and of the economic agent as deciding and acting subject, and also as worker, we need to elaborate on the metaphysical nature of the economic system—i.e., the macroeconomy. This chapter will serve as a prelude to this discussion, noting that the macroeconomy refers to the economic dimension of a whole composed of a great number of people interacting between them—a social collective. Thus, before delving into the topic of the nature of the macroeconomy or macroeconomic entities, we have to establish the nature of social collectives. First, the chapter surveys dictionary definitions of social collectives in order to identify their shared characteristics, using this basic notion as a starting point to ascertain the ontology of social collectives. Next, the chapter describes and analyzes Aristotle’sAristotle seminal views on social collectives. The last section introduces some views that have some similarities with Aristotle’sAristotle and that will benefit from Aristotelian notions.