In his masterpiece Moby-Dick, Herman Melville portrayed the characters with flesh and blood. Besides Ahab’s monomania, Ishmael’s indulgence in meditation, loyal Quequeg, what impresses readers most is Starbuck’s rationality which suggests itself in the following two ways: he knows how to balance interests and risks and he can interpret the man-nature relation from the economic perspective. However, what lies latent behind Starbuck’s rationality is ...