GUTMANN CENTER FOR PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
at the University of Vienna
http://www.gutmann-center.at
is pleased to invite to the following
PUBLIC LECTURE:
- Apologies for any cross-postings!! -
Date: November 9th 2004, 4.30 p.m. -
Speaker: Ernesto Rossi di Montelera, Observatoire de la
Finance
http://www.obsfin.ch/
Title: "PROFIT AND ETHICS: ENEMIES, PARTNERS, OR
UNCONCERNED?"
Abstract:
Why should we talk about ethics in the context of financial
activities, a field that would appear to be highly and
exclusively technical ? Anyway, we must face the fact that the
topic of ethics is more and more widely addressed (but also
feared) in the economic and financial communities. It looks as
if ethics were simultaneously perceived as an obstacle to the
competition for profit but also as a profitable sales
proposition ! Do we have in fact a clear idea of what ethics are
and what is the meaning of the word ? It certainly has something
to do with the idea of trust and of shared rules (and values) as
a necessary condition for a smooth establishment and functioning
of financial relations. So the question arises : are ethics a
cost that should be born in the superior interest of the civil
society, or a condition for better performances ? Should one
expect from "ethical funds" a better return or a better
conscience ? The obvious need for trust leads to the question of
Common Good, a notion of respectable antiquity, but very
difficult to define and to implement. Basical questions should
than be raised : how do we take into consideration the
complexity of any reality ? How can we define its various levels
and bring them to bear in our decisions ? What help can we find
in certain traditional doctrines, as for instance the doctrine
of virtues (of which maybe the virtue of liberalitas is a good
example in our case) ? Are we not sometime (or too often) the
victims of utopian illusions, as in the case of the quest for a
risk-free (zero risk !) society ? What could we say of such
trends as "responsible investment" or "microfinance" ? The
primary problem of ethics is not the definition of the correct
behaviours or the drafting of codes of deontology, but the
search for the ends and means to be discovered in the reality of
things, in the nature of man and in the meaning of his actions :
before the questions about how things should be comes the
question of what things are and to what ends we should direct
them. In our case the primary question could be, for instance :
what is money ?
Location: Bank Gutmann AG (
http://www.gutmann.at),
Schwarzenbergplatz 16, A - 1010 Vienna, Austria
Participation is free, but REGISTRATION required:
brigitte.juchelka(a)gutmann.at
phone: +43-1-50220-357
Further information about the Gutmann Center:
Mag. Dorothea Grimm
Gutmann Center for Portfolio Management
University of Vienna
phone: +43-1-4277-38186
mail: dorothea.grimm(a)univie.ac.at
web:
www.gutmann-center.at