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Samantha Rowland

Professor LeDuc

Business 1050

10 December 2023

Personal Renaissance

Which readings affected you the most, why, and how?

Being introduced into the world of business has always been of interest to me.

For years I have considered creating my own business. Although I still have not come to

the conclusion of what business I would create, that never stopped me from wanting to

become more knowledgeable in business as a whole. I failed to realize how important

business concepts are until taking this course, where I learned how it all started and I

can relate all the bits and pieces from the past-time to the present. Now that I have

been able to apply what I learned to what I know, I can truly say I understand business

practices and how I’d run my own business one day. This is why I chose to write this

paper on which readings affected me most throughout this semester.

The first readings I want to talk about are all from Module 7 “Foundations of

Capitalism” With Capitalism being the primary economic system for most countries in

the world, I was excited when I came across the readings to get more depth. Starting

with Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” a book written on more modern economic

topics. This book created the foundation for modern economics, such as introducing the

free market which is still relevant today. In Book l chapter Vll, Smith talks about natural

and market prices, as well as supply and demand. This quote from this chapter

ultimately stood out to me the most “The quantity of every commodity brought to market
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naturally suits itself to the effectual demand. It is the interest of all those who employ

their land, labor, or stock, in bringing any commodity to market, that the quantity never

should exceed the effectual demand; and it is the interest of all other people that it

never should fall short of that demand.” At first, I never thought much about how market

forces could impact natural pricing of goods, but this brought it all to light for me. If

Adam Smith was able to notice this about commodities back in the 1700’s, think about

how prevalent that is now. It was fascinating to me that with as big as our market is now,

and how it was only just beginning back then, that this could even be recognized. Now

more than 200 years later we are still using his philosophies to explain capitalist,

economic practices. As business was established in the United States, these ideas

were being used. Without those modern ideas being compelled into this book alone,

capitalist & free market business practices might not be around.

The second reading from this semester that made the biggest impact on my

ideas and learning was from module 3 “Business Lessons from Ancient Philosophers”

By that title alone, I knew that this module's readings were going to be some of my

favorites. Being that it was readings from Plato and Aristotle I knew their lessons and

wisdom would go hand in hand. Aristotle’s “The Politics” helped me understand the

overall nature and purpose of political systems as a whole. His influence on what it

should look like to have a just and ideal society changed the way of the world's thinking.

Aristotle taught that humans are inherently social beings and that by nature politics are

a part of our creation. In “The Politics” he says “Man is by nature a political animal.”

saying this, he is emphasizing how important community and governing is at shaping

our lives and who we are as active members of society. I relate this quote to present
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day because business practices are political, inside and outside of what the government

has to do with it. Especially in America. On one hand, you have to do what is socially

acceptable as a business (outside the government) but on the other, you have to follow

government policies to even run a business such as paying taxes on your business.

Business becomes political when there’s a large market for a product, when there’s only

one seller/creator or a million, it all comes down to what you do behind the scenes as a

business that will affect your growth as a company and your sales. Aristotle is one of the

most influential people in the entire world, being the first person to talk about his new

way of thinking hence why his logic is used in many scientific practices still to this day,

and we learned about him in this college course in 2023.

To end, I want to talk about module 13 “Social Responsibility and Ethics” The

readings in this module completely opened my eyes when it came to business and its

societal grasp it has on us. I realized we stopped appreciating what we have and only

increased our worries about what we don’t. This led me to become curious after reading

this module's introduction about what role society plays in business, shortly after I

answered that for myself. We are the business. The reading “Jacob Needleman,

Philosopher” by Bill Moyers was most interesting to me. Moyers interviews Needleman

and it was truly eye opening to hear someone be so straightforward about humans

ethics versus their morals. Together they both bring up how money is an illusion, which

is why we are always looking for more, and using a green piece of paper with a face on

it as the most valuable thing to us, but it wouldn’t have to be that way if all we did was

stopped believing it was the only thing in the world that matters. Money is the rise and

fall of business, some businesses make money, and they end up on top. Others lose
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more money than they even began with, and it ruins lives. It’s a crazy concept that we

as a society accept while knowing the consequences are so outrageous if we make too

many financial mistakes, we don’t even care. More money means more social status

and that is to totem pole we are all trying to reach the top of. Neeldeman said it himself

in this interview “I think money has to do with security. We all feel that. But what is real

security in this world? That's another question. There is the illusion that if I have a lot of

money, I'm going to be secure.” He then went on to say sure, money brings security if

your civilization is secure, which you never know if it is and there can always be a

demise. Moyers also talks about how people need a crisis to happen to realize they can

depend on their communities rather than money. Money gets you a lot of places, but not

everywhere and it surely can not save you.

All in all those three readings truly changed my perspective as a student, human,

someone who’s a part of the working class, a family member, a friend, a girl who’s just

trying to make it in this world. Overall, I would say my biggest take away from this

semester was the societal impact we have on businesses. We appreciate what we

have, but we always want more. Businesses can give more as long as we are willing to

pay the price, but at what cost do we step back and say enough is enough? I can’t

decide yet if humans have ruined business practices since people like Aristotle and

Adam Smith gifted the world with their knowledge. Yes, we have used it in many ways to

build our business foundations, but how far off have we gone since then. Society is

always changing, which in the end affects business, government, and economics. I

have to say, I do find it hard to believe that we would have made it this far without
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people like those I talked about above influencing our world. Business would not be as

booming as it is without their undeniable influence.