The Price of Solidarity: Adam Smith, Thomas Aquinas, and the Ethics of Exchange

This dissertation has two interrelated aims. In the first place, it argues that a theory of justice-in-exchange is necessary in order to maintain social cohesion. Moreover, it defends a specific type of theory, according to which individuals have an obligation to value economic goods rightly. To support these claims, I engage in a constructive, dialectical reconstruction of Thomas Aquinas’ thought through the thought of Adam Smith.