Towards the end of the 19th century, economics tried to reinvent itself as a science, moving away from its roots in political philosophy. Unfortunately that ‘science’ it aspired to be quickly became outdated and we now find ourselves in a situation where financial executives often see the functioning of global capital markets as independent from the real world. Indeed, we even frequently refer to the real world as being at fault for being out of kilter with economic theory.

In a lecture I heard some years ago, a philosopher asserted that science tries to answer the question ‘how’, while philosophy tries to answer the question ‘why’. I believe that much of the dysfunction of the financial landscape today can be traced back to this obsession with answering the question “how to invest”, but neglecting the question ‘why’.