The “modern” in “modern finance”: A multi-paradigmatic look

Any adequate understanding of “modern finance” necessarily requires fundamental understanding of what is “modern”. For this purpose, this paper takes the concept of “modern” and discusses it from four different viewpoints, each of which corresponds to one of the four broad worldviews or basic paradigms: functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralist. The paper emphasizes that the four views expressed are equally scientific and informative; they look at the phenomenon from their certain paradigmatic viewpoint; and together they provide a more balanced understanding of the phenomenon under consideration, i.e., the “modern” in “modern finance”.