Abstract
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.
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Koehn, D. John Meriwether and the Promethean Hero: A Cautionary Tale in Financial Ethics. Teaching Business Ethics 6, 27–43 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014254523503
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014254523503