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First Principles of Finansophy

2008-02-01 The Finansopher

Hello Multiverse! Welcome to my Finansophy blog! To learn more about me and my blog, please read the About page, since I technically wrote that first!

Now first things first, we need to establish first principles and definitions we can all agree on so that any arguments henceforth can be both constructive and robust.

We need to get rid of stereotypes and preconceived notions that Philosophy and Business/Finance dont mix. It is unfounded and, in my humble opinion, ignorant.

As with all Philosophies of __(blank)__ there is the search for some logical fundamental groundwork (metaphysics ), if we can know any of it (epistemology ), and what we should do with it (ethics ). Just with this, it shows that Philosophy is integral to all facets of the multiverse.

Now to philosophers. Some may think the business/corporate world is corrupt and filled with greed and material possessions, but just because some people represent something badly, doesnt mean that it is in itself bad. Its fine if you think that you are above money and material things, I respect that position along with many others, its your life. What I argue is that people should be pursuing things that they really like/love (even if it gets all gushy inside), and if they are good at it, thats gravy. I ask that people respect other peoples beliefs and desires. Aside from people pursing passions, Finance is essentially very useful. Like Philosophy, Finance can almost be applied to anything as well; nearly everything has some sort of economic value to someone. In todays world, distributions of wealth seem unbalanced to many, and yet many still do not pursue financial education. Hopefully, with this blog, I can shed some light on financial topics in a sit-down-for-lunch kind of fashion, so that people can make better investment decisions to be financially secure, without people with conflicts of interest, and inturn also reduce volatility in the markets.

So then we come down to some people being interested in Business, Finance, and investments. Dont they need to find the foundations of what many people consider common knowledge? There needs to be justification for famous financial theories that have been improved over the years (CAPM. APT. risk-reward trade-offs, value investing. etc.) or the accuracy of the information that is analyzed (10-Ks. 10-Qs, other regulatory filings, GAAP compliance, market efficiency. etc.).

Ill be examining these topics in greater detail sooner or later, and I will try to stick to a logical order, but news doesnt wait for anybody. Im going to try to provide many links within my posts (as you can see!) so that if you are unfamiliar with certain topics, you can easily look them up via my links. Usually, I will try to link the best ones so that you have the ultimate depth and breadth of information. For starters, check out the links in this post and on the side to explore some general knowledge before I really get started.

So stay tuned, more is on the way! Ive been thinking about Finansophy for a long time now and I actually have a large backlog of ideas, so no worries.

Thank you, come again!

(Image CC-BY-SA Digon3 .)