Economic Activity
Every being tends, by nature, toward its own preservation and fulfillment, avoiding anything that may distort or destroy it. Among beings, some are inert and lifeless, such as minerals, while others are living: plants, animals, and human beings. In all of them, the tendency toward conservation exists; however, in living beings this tendency is dynamic and intertwined with what we call development. The preservation and development of a living being are sometimes spontaneous, through the action of its natural forces; at other times, they are promoted and directed by the will of human beings. The latter case may be broadly included under the notion of culture.
When referring specifically to human beings, human culture—in a broad sense—refers to the intentional preservation and development of the human person and his particular faculties. Such intention may come from the individual himself or from another person (a parent, teacher, etc.). And because humans are composed of both matter and spirit, their culture is twofold: physical and spiritual. It should be noted that, in ordinary language, when one speaks of culture without qualification, the term usually refers to spiritual culture—that which develops the faculties of the human soul: intelligence, will, and aesthetic sense.
Preservation and development, for humans as for all living beings, require activities directed toward achieving them. These activities are varied but may be classified into several groups.
a. First, those that directly and immediately aim at preservation and development. These are therefore cultural activities (using “culture” in the broad sense previously mentioned).
According to the twofold nature of human culture, these activities may be: physical culture—such as eating, exercising, or practicing sports; spiritual culture—such as studying, performing good works, producing or appreciating the arts; and, at a transcendent level, religious activity. Cultural activities require means, often material ones. This is self-evident in physical culture, which requires food, clothing, housing, and sports equipment. But it also applies to spiritual culture, due to the intimate union of body and spirit; it requires books, instruments, artistic materials, and more.
Material means, however, generally require human effort to obtain or produce them. This effort constitutes another type of activity: economic activity.
Furthermore, humans do not live in isolation; they are profoundly social beings, typically bound by various types of social relationships. Cultural and economic activities frequently presuppose such relationships.
These relationships and the various forms of societies that humans build must be ordered and regulated so that they are peaceful and contribute to the well-being of all participants. This ordering and regulation require special activities known as political activities.
Cultural, economic, and political activities—using these terms in the broad meanings previously indicated—provide a framework that essentially encompasses all possible human activities.
It must be noted, however, that in practice human activities are often mixed, containing elements of two or even all three categories. For example, education may serve an economic purpose or prepare for a political role.
Economy and Technique
Within economic activities, understood in the broad sense above, one must distinguish the technical aspect—meaning how to act upon things to obtain them in the greatest quantity and highest possible quality, making use of their properties.
Outside this lies the strictly economic aspect: human activity insofar as it considers the relationship between the effort or sacrifice required to obtain something (its cost) and the resulting product. For example, in agricultural production the technical aspect concerns preparing the soil, selecting seeds or plants, and choosing cultivation and harvesting methods—all aimed at achieving the greatest quantity and best quality of outputs. The strictly economic aspect, by contrast, concerns the comparison between the cost of the labor and materials used and the value of the products obtained.
From this point onward, the term economic will be used in this restrictive sense, excluding the technical component.