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 corporations 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 Friedmans 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:
1. Explain the main conclusion of the argument from Friedman that you have chosen to write about.
2. 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 Friedmans argument using your own words.
3. Present what you think is the strongest objection to Friedmans 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 Friedmans 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.)
4. Explain what you believe is Friedmans 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 Friedmans argument despite this response.
