BUS 378
Paper assignment 3: Friedman on the social responsibility of business
Due December 14
The length of the paper is no more than 1000 words, including references and footnotes. I would like to grade these papers anonymously, so please do not include your name on the document you upload to Blackboard.
In “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits,” Milton Friedman argues that the manager of a corporation has an obligation to create as much value as possible for the corporation’s shareholders, within certain constraints. In class, we distinguished between several different arguments Friedman offers for this conclusion. (See the “Friedman argument reformulations” item in the “Paper assignments” folder on Blackboard.) In this short paper, you will select one of Friedman’s arguments to explain and critique. You will do this in the following way, with each item below roughly corresponding to one paragraph of your paper:
Explain the main conclusion of the argument from Friedman that you have chosen to write about.
Explain the main premises of the argument from Friedman that you have chosen to write about, making it clear how they support his conclusion. Please do not just repeat verbatim what is on the argument reformulations document on Blackboard. Do your best to explain Friedman’s argument using your own words.
Present what you think is the strongest objection to Friedman’s argument. Your objection should be a reason to reject as false one of the premises of the argument from Friedman that you have chosen to critique. Make sure that it is clear to your reader which of Friedman’s premises your objection is targeting, and how your objection provides a reason for thinking that premise is false. (Remember that some of the other authors that we have read this semester may be helpful for justifying the claims you make in your objection to Friedman.)
Explain what you believe is Friedman’s best response to the objection you raise, and evaluate whether (a) this response convincingly addresses the objection you raised, or (b) the objection successfully undermines Friedman’s argument despite this response.
You only have 1000 words, so you must be concise. Don’t waste any words. Your introduction needs to be as efficient as possible. It is generally a good idea to have a thesis statement in your introduction with something like the following form: “In this paper, I argue that…” followed by a concise description of the position you will defend in the paper.
Don’t waste time discussing anything that isn’t necessary for presenting the objection/argument you make. Don’t try to sound smart. Don’t use long, fancy words when short, plain ones will do. Be as clear as possible.
You can and should write in the first person. Don’t avoid using “I” when it makes sense to do so.
General Information
Papers are due by 11:59 pm on the date indicated on the syllabus.
Papers should be uploaded to Blackboard. If you have any problems uploading the paper, send it to me by email ([email protected]).
Please submit papers in Word format. If you don’t have access to word, please submit your paper as a PDF.
Like the syllabus says, late papers will be penalized 1/3 of a grade (e.g. A- to B+) for each day the paper is late. Weekends count as one day.
Cite your sources. Any time you draw on a source, including sources on our course syllabus, whether quoting, paraphrasing, or referring to an idea from that source, cite the relevant source.
Protip: you can easily find citation information in a variety of standard formats by searching on Google Scholar.
See this reference guide for how to cite in APA format: https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf
Any recognized citation format is fine, but be consistent with the format you use throughout the paper. Be sure to include a full citation (with author, title, date, etc.) for each source.
Grading
Your papers will be graded primarily based on the following criteria:
Clarity: Your paper needs to be clearly written, well-organized, and easy to follow.
Accuracy: Your presentation of the argument you’re objecting to in your paper must be accurate, focused, and charitable.
Engagement: Your paper should raise an interesting and plausible objection to the argument you’re focusing on, and it should clearly explain why we should accept or reject the objection.
Writing Guidelines
This popular site by Jim Pryor gives some helpful tips for writing papers of this style. Some of the tips don’t apply to short paper assignments like this one (e.g. I do not expect you to fully rewrite your draft “At least 3 or 4” times as Pryor recommends, though I do expect you to revise enough to make it polished, clear, and complete), but others may be useful: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html
This page contains some good tips for writing a critical essay: https://businessethicsjournalreview.com/resources/students-guide-to-writing-critical-essays-in-business-ethics/
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