John Meriwether and the Promethean Hero: A Cautionary Tale in Financial Ethics

Ethicists typically understand unethical actsto be those that either violate social normsand mores or that prevent people fromdeveloping the character needed to thrive. This paper looks to a classical source – the mythof Prometheus' creation of man – to explore analternative understanding of wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Koehn, Daryl (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2002
In: Teaching business ethics
Year: 2002, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-43
Further subjects:B Evil
B Prometheus
B Hubris
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Ethicists typically understand unethical actsto be those that either violate social normsand mores or that prevent people fromdeveloping the character needed to thrive. This paper looks to a classical source – the mythof Prometheus' creation of man – to explore analternative understanding of what it means toact unethically. On this classical view,acting in an evil fashion is less a matter of asingle violation of some norm or of developingan unwholesome character and more a matter ofworldview or outlook. Evil enters the worldwhen humans cease to understand themselves inrelation to the divine and cast themselves asgods. The rise and fall of the Long-TermCapital Hedge Fund (LTCM) and its legendaryfounder John Meriwether nicely illustrates thehuman attempt to supplant the gods and itsuntoward consequences.
ISSN:1573-1944
Contains:Enthalten in: Teaching business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1014254523503