2019 Essay Contest
To engage young people in discussions about economics, the human condition and their connection to the moral underpinnings of capitalism and individual and business ethics, the BB&T Center for the Study of the Moral Foundations of Capitalism sponsors an annual essay competition. The competition requires students to write an essay on a topic about the nature of economics, capitalism and the ethical challenges facing business today.
Background
Every discipline dealing with human action and social policy must make assumptions about what people are, what they are capable of, what affects them, before even considering what is good for them. By its nature, a Catholic university is simply more open about the assumptions that are made than other universities in which such ideas creep in, often without reflection. As a Catholic university, the Mount explores the world through a basic view of human existence which is central to Christianity, but also common to other religions and traditions: that people have some capacity for free and creative action, on the basis of reasoned understanding of eternal and universal ideals that can actually exist, and that civil society serves a crucial function in guiding the development of those capacities, and in passing on those ideas by which people act and shape their lives.
Recognizing that we cannot avoid making such assumptions about human nature and human capacity in either our behavioral and social theory or in our moral reflection, the mission of the BB&T Center at Mount St. Mary’s University is to explore when and how such ideas have mattered in economics and in economic phenomena. The high school essay is designed to provide creative high school students with an opportunity to explore those connections as well.
Freedom and Social Theory: What Does it Take to be Free?
This year’s contest draws out the issues through two views of free will and responsibility by the civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King and biologist Anthony Cashmore.
In your own words, compare the views of King and Cashmore on the relationship between free will and responsibility. What view of human existence produces their different conclusions regarding the possibility of free will? How should we approach life, and the study of it, if King is right? If Cashmore is right?
Cashmore addresses crime, but how might his analysis—and King’s response to it—apply to other fields of human behavior or policy particularly economics?
King
"I do not mean to imply that heredity and environment are not important. Far from saying that environment and heredity have no importance in human personality, what I am really saying is that there is another factor which is the ultimate determining factor: personal response. And herein lies our responsibility. We are not responsible for the environment we are born in, neither are we responsible for our hereditary circumstances. But there is a third factor for which we are responsible namely, the personal response which we make to these circumstances."
Cashmore
"[T]he way we use the concept of free will is nonsensical. The reality is, not only do we have no more free will than a fly or a bacterium, in actuality, we have no more free will than a bowl of sugar. [A]s living systems we are nothing more than a bag of chemicals. The laws of nature are uniform throughout, and these laws do not accommodate the concept of free will… If free will is an illusion, then it becomes more difficult to hold people responsible for their actions."
"'Free will' has been a fairly useful fiction but it is beginning to outlive its usefulness. Progress in understanding the chemical basis of behavior will make it increasingly untenable to retain a belief in the concept of free will. To retain any degree of reality, the criminal justice system will need to adjust accordingly. The primary difference would be the elimination of the illogical concept that individuals are in control of their behavior in a manner that is something other than a reflection of their genetic makeup and their environmental history."
The essays from which these quotations come are posted below.
Additional information
You may approach/connect this to any high school discipline: economics, sociology, social studies, political science, history, literature, science, theology, religion, philosophy, art, etc. However, you must consider the above authors and their ideas in your answer.
To assist students who wish to engage these questions, we have provided some additional resources which we believe can help. Below are some reflection questions which may inspire and organize your thoughts. In addition, we have posted articles and book chapters, drawn from various perspectives and disciplines, which touch on human nature in ways related to the essay.
Entry Deadline
The 2019 Essay Contest closes on May 24, 2019.
Eligibility
The contest is open to high school students from grades 9-12.
Prizes
The first place winner receives a $1,000 cash prize and is eligible for a $1,000 scholarship if they attend Mount St. Mary’s University within three years. The second place award is a $200 cash prize.
Contact us
John Larrivee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics
Director, BB&T Center for the Study of the Moral Foundations of Capitalism
Richard J. Bolte, Sr. School of Business
Mount St. Mary's University
301-447-5066