Abstract
"An iconic skyscraper has aesthetic significance that may have meaning for other aspects of human experience -- serving, for example, as an expression of cultural and ethical values and a symbol of economic power. This study examines the competition for the world's tallest skyscraper as a symbolic, but also substantively significant, window through which to understand the relationship between economics, ethics, aesthetics, and human well-being. The study consists of an empirical component, analyzing skyscraper economics; and a philosophical inquiry on the social and ethical implications of the empirical data. The empirical component connects architectural data on the world's tallest skyscrapers to indicators of economic and ethical performance. The philosophical component explores the relationship between economic power and aesthetic and ethical values, raising normative concerns about the race to growth, without succumbing to the cultural paternalism that often pervades contemporary Western commentary on Eastern economic practices."