The Unfolding of the Productive Dualization: from the Uses of the Product to the Network of Means. The Proximate Anthropological Bases of Economic Activity

Abstract

 In the spirit of Leonardo Po­lo’s thinking, we study human productive activity from the use of the product to the network of means. Usage links the product with a human purpose, transforming it into a medium (or means). A careful examination of the medium reveals its rational and material dimensions. The consideration of its first dimension calls for studying the notion of human ends and their types, whose hierarchy allows the ordering of the means. Finally, the study of their material dimen­sion unveils the plural character (network) of the whole set of means.