Introduction: philosophy for finance

The reactions to financial systems have varied between radically negative, pragmatically moderate, and generally positive (§1). These three stances display different philosophical approaches to finance and also the interdependence between finance and philosophy (§2). On this basis, I outline the role that philosophy plays for financial practice and vice versa (§3), and I explore the specific dynamics of ‘reverse finance’ (§4) and interesting philosophical consequences of it (§5). Moreover, I discuss some recent contributions to a few main issues in the emerging field of the philosophy of finance (§6), in particular in ontology, methodology, ethics, mathematical modeling, and algorithmic finance.