The Value of Money: Ethics and the World of Finance

(Hardback)

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It is commonly observed that economic factors are pivotal in driving globalisation forward. A globalised economy is far more advanced than a globalised politics. However, if we are to fully understand what is happening, that assumption needs to be refined. This book argues that economic factors are themselves driven: they are the working out of underlying phenomena. Of these, the most pervasive and influential is money. This is not only money in the sense of the finance sector; it is also money in and of itself, the symbolic properties which money possesses. Crucially, this book takes both disciplines seriously, as equal conversation partners, and does not seek to use one approach to define the other as automatically inadequate.

Reviews

mention- The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2, 2006
Author Catherine Cowley is taking part in the BBC World Service discussion programme In the Balance. The topics discussed were executive pay and debt forgiveness.
With experience in the business world and now as a professor of religion, ethics, and public life, Cowley (Heythrop College, Univ. of London) is uniquely situated to write this useful book on Christian ethics and the finance sector. Unlike most volumes on business ethics, Cowley's book illuminates the role of the moral agent in the complex world of financial transactions. Deeply informed about the workings of the market, and grounded in virtue ethics and the rinciple of the common good, Cowley not only does a good job of situating the world of economic activity within a larger social and ethical framework, but also brings an insider's knowledge of the finance sector to bear on her moral analysis. Given the focus on the market, it is perhaps not too surprising that she underdevelops the personalist ethics that she uses to challenge the utilitarian moral philosophy that underlies much of thedefense of the free market. This excellent book will be profitably used by social ethicists and also nonacademics seeking to understand how market and financial activity can be subject to moral evaluation based on Christian moral principles. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * Choice *

Author Bio

Dr Catherine Cowley ra teaches Christian Ethics at Heythrop College, University of London, and is Associate Director of the Heythrop Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life. She is a member of the Congregation of the Religious of the Assumption.