First Essay

For this essay, I want you to wrestle with this first group of readings and determine how you think a "good society" should balance the competing claims of individual freedom and social control for the good of the community (associated with this - where should the control come from, insofar as you see a need for it?).  As you do this, I would like for you to keep these things in mind:
A.) Please do not uncritically accept the U.S. status quo.  Even if you think that the US is as good as it gets in the world, and has perfectly balanced freedom and control, I expect for you to cogently explain why you think things could not be improved, and what you perceive to be the political/philosophical base of US society with regard to this issue.
B.) Please do not write anything that you think would be nice, but you believe is ultimately impossible.  This assignment is about what you perceive as the REAL WORLD - in this class, I am only interested in workable utopias, visions for a better social order that you actually think could plausibly exist, even if it currently is not found anywhere.  (Remember - when the founders wrote the Constitution, they had no example in the world that they could use to prove that it would work, but they believed that it could.)
C.) Please use the readings from this first unit in making your argument.  As a corollary - please do not do additional research with other social scientists. If you do, by chance, happen to have something (from another class, for example) that you want to include that we did not read, you may do so. BUT YOU MUST CITE YOUR SOURCE.
D.) Remember - a substantial portion of your grade will be based on how well you understand and use the readings that we have shared thus far.  So contextualize your argument, and your opinion, within the intellectual context of this class. Relate your opinions to Thoreau, to Skinner, to Freud, to Mead, to Jefferson, to Madison, to the French or the UN founders, as appropriate.  I assigned those readings because I believe that they are instructive and useful in presenting a variety of ways of dealing with this question.  Don't ignore them. Even if you think you have a fantastic new way of understanding this debate, explain how it differs from these other writers.
E.) Of course, use direct quotes in proving your points. 
 

Remember that the best essays, in any discipline, are those which  acknowledge and confront the best ideas that oppose their own.  So, if you think that Thoreau is way off base - don't just ignore him. Tell me why you think he is wrong.

As always, let me know if you have questions.

AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE READ ANDREW CARNEGIE'S VERY IMPORTANT "GOSPEL OF WEALTH" BEFORE CLASS ON TUESDAY - HAVING A PAPER DUE IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO NOT DO THE READING!!

I look forward to your essays. I hope that you have some good late night conversations and some equally productive late night solitary meditations. In undertaking this essay, in a small way you are joining a discourse that has transfixed dreamers and thinkers for millennia - welcome!