Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of the dialogical dimension of exchange. Th e author treats the exchange as a unit of analysis more relevant to social science than the decision around which mainstream economics is concentrated. The article has two goals. Firstly, it is an attempt to draw attention to the negative function of modern economics, which focuses on decisions and the construction of depersonalized, holistic theoretical structures and loses its proper social dimension from view. Secondly, it is an attempt to look at the exchange of personalities as a kind of interpersonal relations and to show its dialogical character, by referring to the philosophy of E. Lévinas. Starting from the personalist economics as a theory of the duty of action due to the development of the person, the author shows the exchange as a form of dialogue in which mutual responsibility for each other has its expression and which thus has a communityforming character. It indicates the exchange as an important condition for the development of the person.

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