Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 2

deux mille ans, en vers & en prose, & on l'a toujours aimé. " 69 Luxury is not something objective. A thing becomes a luxury by the fact that it is experienced by someone in a special way. While one person perceives the fresh air in the forest at home as a luxury, for another it is a trip to the Seychelles. Is luxury immoral? The fact that luxury contradicts the virtues was already proven by the Aristotelian doctrine of the middle measure. In the Christian context, luxury is repeatedly associated with luxuria and appears immoral. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul states that Christians should be guided by the spirit and not by the desires of the body. Thus, let them be guided by virtues, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, and not driven by selfishness, envy, immorality and debauchery. In Voltaire, then, luxury is the counterpart of the state of nature. We therefore come to the further development of the second aspect that emerged from the Spanish texts, luxury. 70 Luxuria is among the seven root sins that lead to debauchery, hedonism, covetousness and sexual licentiousness. It is also popularly known as a mortal sin and stands alongside superbia , avaritia , ira , gula , invidia and acedia . For the Christian author Prudentius (348- 405), luxury through gluttony, wine consumption and lust leads to the softening of the senses and is at the origin of sin . 71 Augustine also argues along these lines when he upholds the Stoic condemnation of luxury 72 , claiming that wealth promotes the indulgence of sensuality and vanity, while poverty and suffering discipline the mind. The appearance of luxury, he argues, leads to the destruction of civilization and caused the fall of Rome. 73 Thus, if one takes vital or natural needs as the standard, deviation from them is contrary to nature, as Seneca points out: "Omnia vitia contra naturam pugnant, omnia debitum ordinem deserunt; hoc est luxuriae propositum." 74 Seneca distinguishes between natural desires, which have limits, and unnatural ones, which know no limits. While the natural desire can stop somewhere, the unnatural one wanders indefinitely. 75 In the 2nd century AD, the church father Clement of Alexandria also refers to nature, which provides orientation for the entire way of life, for clothing and nutrition . 76 The right measure, the Aristotelian mesotes , is what luxury as excess of pleasure, money or honor misses. According to Aristotle, the good life is not achieved through luxury, but through a virtuous way of life, "for even with moderate means it is possible to act in accordance with virtue. This can be clearly seen from the fact that private citizens do not lag behind princes in right and virtuous action, but rather seem to be ahead of them. It is enough, therefore, if the necessary means are available. " 77 According to Aristotle, the cardinal virtue of moderatio counsels choosing the middle measure, "those middles, namely, which we are convinced, as corresponding to right reason, lie between excess and deficiency." 78 We find the counter position advocating luxury again in the French Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century. For Montesquieu, luxury is a contribution to the fight against poverty: "Il faut bien qu'il y ait du luxe. Si les riches n'y dépensent pas beaucoup, les pauvres mourront de faim. " 79 In weighing the moral and social value of luxury, the latter seems weightier. From there to the elevation of luxury to morality it is only a small step. Saint-Évremond succeeds in a first reevaluation of values when he argues that frugality is conditioned by constraints and is not a virtue . 80 That luxury is not associated with effeminacy but that it means work is emphasized by Montesquieu in his 106th letter of the Lettres persanes . With peoples, who would have to get along still without the arts, also a skillful monkey could live in all honors. After all, comforts should not be confused with idleness: "Paris est peut-être la ville du monde la plus sensuelle et où l'on raffine le plus sur les plaisirs; mais c'est peut-être celle où l'on mène une vie plus dure. " 81 A ruler may thus take care "that his sujets vivent dans les délices: il faut qu'il travaille à leur procurer toutes sortes de superfluités avec autant d'attention que les nécessités de la vie." 82 Finally, Condillac arrives at the paradoxical connection of luxury with the central Enlightenment virtue of utility: "Nous voulons vivre dans le luxe, et nous voulons que notre luxe soit utile." 83 Machiavelli did not reevaluate values, but rather separated morality from politics. While the cardinal virtues were the focus of the traditional Mirrors of Princes, Machiavelli had recommended in his Anti- Princely Mirror that the prince acts immorally in the interest of efficiency and the reason of state. Machiavelli's separation of morality and politics for the Volume XXII Issue II Version I 50 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Economy between Necessity and Luxury. Business Ethics from Antiquity to Early Modern Times 69 Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique. Portatif, Londres 1764, p. 256; cf. p. 258 70 Cf. Gal. 5, 16-24, cf. Dorit Grugel-Pannier, Luxus, p. 101 71 Cf. Die Psychomachie des Prudentius, Ursmar Engelmann (ed.), Herder, Basel, Freiburg 1959, p. 52f 72 Cf. Marcus Tullius Cicero, De officiis. Vom pflichtgemäßen Handeln, H. Gunermann (ed.), Stuttgart, Reclam 1976, p. 89-90 (I, 29) 73 Cf. Dorit Grugel-Pannier, Luxus. Eine begriffs- und ideengeschichtliche Untersuchung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Bernard Mandeville, Frankfurt a.M., Lang, 1996, p. 196 74 Seneca, Epistolae 122, 5; cf. Dorit Grugel-Pannier, Luxus, p. 27 75 Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Marion Giebel (ed.), Reclam, 2014, p. 54 (16. letter) 76 Cf. Dorit Grugel-Pannier, Luxus, p. 103 77 Aristoteles, Nikomachische Ethik, Hamburg, Meiner, 1995, p. 254 (1179 a) 78 Aristoteles, Nikomachische Ethik, Hamburg, Meiner, 1995, p. 130 (1138 b) 79 Montesquieu, De l‘esprit des lois, Paris, Pourrat, 1831, pág. 197 80 Saint-Évremond, Oeuvres, Paris, Des Maizeaux, 1753, vol. 2. pág. 148, 152, vol. 3. pág. 206-211 81 Montesquieu, Lettres persanes, Ligaran, 2015, p. 361 82 Montesquieu, Lettres persanes, Ligaran, 2015, p. 362 83 Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Le commerce et le gouvernement considérés relativement l’un à l’autre (1776), Paris 1961, p. 239