Take and Throw Away: Elements for an Economy of Gesture within the Cynical School

Abstract

Many studies have been published about the topics of voluntary poverty, begging and counterfeit currency. Our purpose is to consider them from a different point of view, which has been neglected until now : the gesture of the Cynics towards material goods. The two main gestures are to take and to throw. Regarding economy, Cynic philosophers elaborate an attitude which expresses both an ethical criticism of the economy and a philosophical and incarnate way of life.

[See the article on Cairn]