This paper should be an argument. Make a case [thesis], defend it with specific and adequate evidence. Your paper should establish and develop a single dominant idea, a thesis [or controlling idea], developed [supported] in parts. An argument simply consists of a thesis [an idea] followed by support. Please be careful not to write a summary [that's expository]. Make a case, defend it. Following are some guidelines.
Q. Gandhi's "Economic and Moral Progress" suggests that morality and economic prosperity do not go hand in hand. In fact, he argues, oftentimes, one loses one's morality when one becomes wealthy. Do you agree with Gandhi? Does wealth correlate with immorality? Yes or no. Explain by referring to passages from the essay.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
1 What does Mohandas Gandhi mean by "economic progress"? What does he mean by "moral progress"? How are the two terms interrelated in this speech?
2. Though Gandhi was a Hindu speaking to a largely Hindu audience, his primary religious source for this speech is the New Testament. Why does he emphasize Christian scriptures? What does this choice say about the ethos (p. 663) he was trying to construct?
3. What is Gandhi's position on poverty? Does he suggest that moral development requires the renunciation of physical needs? Are extremely poor people morally superior to others? Are wealthy people morally inferior? Explain.
4. What does Gandhi see as "real progress"? Whom does he name as having furthered the real progress of humankind? What traits do these individuals share? What are the "real economics" that he refers to at the end of this speech?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
1. Compare Gandhi's position on the connection between wealth and morality with similar discussions in the New Testament (p. 541) and "The Flower Market" (p. 545). How do these texts, taken together, support the idea of a universal (or at least widespread) religious approach to economics?
2. Would Simone Weil (p. 571) support Gandhi's view that economic progress is at odds with moral progress? Do Gandhi and Weil define "moral" in similar ways?
3. Martin Luther King Jr. cited Gandhi as a major influence on his thinking and social activism. How might "Economic and Moral Progress" have informed "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (p. 425)?
WRITING ABOUT THE TEXT
1. Write your own response to the key question that Gandhi raises: What is the relationship between economic progress and moral progress?
2. Compare Gandhi's arguments about wealth and morality with those of Jesus in the sixteenth chapter of Luke (p. 541). How substantially do the views differ?
3. Refute Gandhi's claim by arguing that many people have been able to accomplish good things through their material wealth.