Expression Principle

Human actions should not be conflated with goods. There is a necessary distinction between actions and goods. The failure to properly distinguish between the two, at the most fundamental level, leads to errors of significant consequence to humanity.

Actions, are at the most fundamental level, human preferences given expression through goods. Without expression, the preference is merely a thought. Catallactics concerns itself with expressed preferences. Preferences are expressed by trade and by consumption.

In this sense, the human spirit is the person. It has preferences that it expresses by motivating the body over which it has control (owns). This body is its property, a good. When its body is fully depreciated (dead), the spirit ceases to be an actor. It is not necessary to contemplate disembodied spirits, as no action is implied.

Catallactics is not concerned with legal, theological, or ethical concepts of humanity. The Turing Test is sufficient criteria for the determination of humanity. The catallactic distinction is the formation of preferences, independent of any other actor. A person in this sense is a decision-maker, as distinct from a rule-follower. A machine is a good that expresses the preferences of a person. A person expresses its preferences by motivating its machine.

A spirit cannot be property, and a body is the property of its spirit. Only the spirit controls the body, where control defines ownership. Where the spirit is compelled to act through the aggression of another actor, the preference is not independent. The preference expressed is that of the aggressor. Catallactics considers only the consequences of independent actors. When a person pays a tax, he is presumed to be expressing the preference of another person, as tax is by its nature involuntary trade. Similarly, slavery implies expression of the slaver’s preferences, not those of the slave.

Action is the expression of human preference through goods. Processes directed by humans are action, processes directed by machines are goods. In other words, production, labor, and leisure are actions, while websites, assembly lines, and cars are goods.