Presenting legal and philosophical essays on money, this book explores the conditions according to which an object like a piece of paper, or an electronic signal, has come to be seen as having a value.

TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION (by A. Condello)1. Why a Book on Money?2. Why This Book on Money?3. Money, Social Ontology and LawCHAPTER IMoney: Ontology and Deception (by J.R. Searle)1. The Functions of Money and the Definition of Money 2. Social ontology3. Status functions are created by declaration4. Money is Always a Status Function5. Further Forms of Deception and Money6. Money and Deception, a Summary7. What is Money?CHAPTER IIThe Color of Money (by M. Ferraris)0. Introduction: Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg1. Epistemology1.1. Analysis1.2. Manifest Image1.3. Deep Structure1.4. Pentecost or Emergence2. Ontology2.1. Dialectic2.2. Necessary Condition2.3. Sufficient Condition2.4. Power and Form3. Technology3.1. Competence without Understanding3.2. Iteration3.3. The Mystic Foundation of AuthorityCHAPTER IIISocio-legal Reality in the Making. Money as a Paradigm (by A. Condello)1. A Basic Social Institution2. Overview on Searle’s and Ferraris’ Theories of Money3. Social Reality and Law: Cross-Breeding Intentionality with Documentality3.1 The Symbolic Socio-legal Object for Searle: Money as Status Function3.2 Tracing Socio-Legal Reality: Maurizio Ferraris’ Documentality4. Broadening the Field: from Money to Legal Reality4.1 Res, pecunia, lis5. Conclusion. Socio-Legal Reality in the MakingCONCLUSION (by A. Condello)1. Means of Exchange2. Money (as Law) is a Social TechnologyBibliographyAcknowledgements