ABSTRACT
The basic unit of finance is the transaction or the contract relating - in the vast majority of cases- to an immediate payment and a commitment to, or a promise or an expectation of future payment. Finance - trade in promises - is not separate from money, for financial promises imply payment. In modern societies the management of money is based on public logic, in which the monetary function is performed by the central bank. 'Multimodal causality' refers to an analytical approach that goes back to Aristotle. Whereas modern methodologies give the term 'causality' a very precise meaning based on a direct, mechanical cause-and-effect relationship, the ancient sages included a far broader spectrum of considerations within this term. Ethics and responsibility are in many ways similar. They differ as regards the importance of the legal dimension - a key part of the notion of responsibility.
