“The choice of a mathematical model is not ethically neutral because the mental equipment transferred by the model on the person using it built a worldview that encourages or discourages certain behaviors more than others. We consider that, regarding financial activities, any mathematical preference is an ethical preference. It is not surprising that people who limit ethics to behaviors do not see that the issue of the technical and scientific equipment is important because the reduction of ethics to deontology is the corollary of the reduction of science to scientism, which is an theory in which science is considered as a neutral tool and only its using is not neutral. We have seen how the current controversies on the role of mathematics and the responsibilities in the financial crisis are marked by a scientistic conception of science. On the contrary, contemporary epistemological theory enables us to include in the scope of ethical finance, the technical and mental tools that make up the everyday reality of financial professionals. (…) The ethical finance can not ignore the impact of management tools, particularly those that contain a representation of risk. Management tools carry a representation of the risk impacts on every level : organizational (control procedures), institutional (international regulatory standards), technical (assessment methods), and cognitive (ways of thinking uncertainty). It is therefore of prime importance to extend deontological ethics to technical devices and management tools.”
(Translated from french : Chistian Walter, Éthique et finance : le tournant performatif, Transversalités, octobre-décembre 2012, n° 124, p. 29 et s.)