THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO RESEARCH OF THE NATURE AND ESSENCE OF MONEY
At present, the monetary economy is undergoing a serious transformation, caused by numerous factors of both endogenous and exogenous character. The world community faces a serious task related to the need for further regulation of monetary relations, which is especially important in the era of their virtualization. Despite the emergence of new forms of money, they still remain the organizing means of the reproduction process, acting as a system-forming factor in the economic relations of modern society. Consistent participation of money in all stages of the reproductive process makes it possible to characterize them as a multifaceted scientific category with a wide range of essential characteristics. Despite of some developed provisions of the theory of money, there are questions of the genesis and essence of money, the relevance of its functions to the current conditions for the development of money circulation, etc. The aim of the study is to identify the nature and essence of money through basic approaches and concepts of economic science. Within the framework of the research, dialectical, systemic, institutional, evolutionary methods of scientific cognition are used. According to conclusions, firstly, it is necessary to abandon monistic understanding of the nature of money, which is possible only when using the principle of methodological pluralism in studying their genesis; secondly, in the study of the essence of money, it is necessary to distinguish two categories: material and non-material, which is especially important in the modern era of virtualization of monetary units.