This research project is based on a question that was of paramount importance to Adam Smith: Do morals improve with economic development and increased societal wealth? Smith thought that as commercial society developed, moral progress would follow. He hypothesized that wealthy commercial societies would become more polished and polite, less vicious, more inclusive, and more tolerant over time. Part of Smith’s argument for commercial society improving morals is the greater degree of interaction and cooperation that is required in a market system with a wide-spread division of labor. In consequence, laws and government would evolve to reflect this social and moral improvement by allowing its members to enjoy greater personal, political, and economic freedom, moving society ever closer to Smith’s ideal “system of natural liberty.” (N.B., Smith does NOT argue that wealthy individuals are more moral than the poorer members of society at a given point in time. The argument is about comparing society as a whole at different points in time.)
In contrast, some critics of capitalism have argued that capitalism (commercial society) and increasing wealth corrupt morals, and therefore commercial societies would degenerate morally over time. These critics argue that as wealth and material affluence increases, people would become more avaricious, self-centered, selfish, and less concerned about community and the greater good. In consequence, as countries develop economically, governments would need to become ever more involved in personal, social, and economic spheres of life in order to maintain social cohesion.
Your term paper will analyze and answer this question. Although your answer will come down to your personal judgment, your argument should be entirely evidence based. Recall Smith’s hypothesis: A nation’s laws and social mores would evolve towards offering citizens greater personal, political, and economic freedom over time as a result of the success of commercial society and the concomitant improvement in social morals. You are to gather evidence as to whether or not this has been happening in the United States over the past 200 years. Then, using your evidence on the evolution of laws and social customs, you will determine whether it is consistent with moral progress, moral stagnation, or moral decay over the same time period. In order to do this project well you will need to collect evidence both in favor of and opposed to your
position (thesis). That is, you can’t just present evidence supporting your position; you also need to be able to refute the best evidence that supposedly counters your argument.
Formatting Requirements
The length of your term paper should be (in the vicinity of) 2000 words. Title pages, References pages, or any other pages located after the References page do not count towards the word limit.
Term papers will be graded for organization, content, clarity, research detail, quantity and quality of evidence, and the cogency and sophistication of your argument.
The number of sources that you include in your analysis is up to you. Sources will be judged in terms of both quantity and quality, with particular emphasis on the latter.
Your paper should be neatly typed, double-spaced and in a 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins.
You are to submit an electronic copy in Word format on the due date. Name your electronic submission by your last name first, then an underscore, then your first name, then another underscore and “TP” with a .doc or .docx extension (e.g., yankow_jeff_TP.docx).
You should be aware that I will use the e-copy of your term paper to check for plagiarism via proprietary matching software (Turnitin.com) made available to the Furman faculty. Papers found to have any plagiarized content will be given a score of zero and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Furman University code of conduct.
Your paper must be formatted according to the American Psychological Association (APA) style.
You need to be clear in your paper about any supplemental sources of information that you utilize. Information obtained from sources, whether print or online, must be documented properly in the text, and each reference must be listed on a reference page. Failure to document sources properly will result in a reduced score; failure to disclose any sources that you use constitutes plagiarism.
Footnotes are not to be used for direct citation of referenced material. However, they may be used to provide incidental or tangential information to the reader that does not belong in the text-proper.