The many lovers of gain: the pseudo-platonic hipparchus and the fourth-century BCE debate on the pursuit of self-interest

Abstract

This article deals with the interpretation of Hipparchus and the question to which extent its advocacy of φιλοκέρδεια or the love of gain should be read ironically. It argues that this pseudoPlatonic dialogue can be best understood in the context of a broader fourth-century philosophical debate on the pursuit of (economic) self-interest. First, I show how the Hipparchus comments on and develops thoughts from Plato’s Republic. Then, I demonstrate how the re-evaluation of the love of gain compares to Xenophon’s treatment of φιλοκέρδεια, κέρδος, and πλεονεξία in the Oeconomicus and Cyropaedia, which also respond to the Republic, and show how both authors provocatively re-evaluate these negative notions of gain or self-interest into neutral ones. These comparisons inform a layered reading, in which the apparent irony helps readers to reflect on the proposed re-evaluation of commerce.