2415. Eco-nomics, eco-logy

If you were to look at modern society and did not have the word economics in mind, you would never take a slice through what we have now and call it economics. Economics is the name of something small which over time has been extended to larger and larger complexities of society.

The origin is in the Greek word eco meaning home or estate. Nomos means man made law and logos means natural law. Economics then is the eco- nomos, the law of, the household. The word ecology has the same root, where but the two words have diverged far from each other. Bringing ecology and economics back together into a single integrated discipline could be one way of looking at the future of what economics could become.

There is an interesting possibility that the first conflict between economics and ecology was in the Byzantine culture’s conversation about which was the fit home for God: here on earth among us ( eco-nomos) or in the sky above us and remote (eco-logos).

The modern parallel question would be, which is the fit place for humans, living in ecology, or living in economics?