James Dyett

Helping Across Borders

This thesis explores why individuals give money to charities focused on international as opposed to domestic causes. Cross-border philanthropy is a topic that has yet to be thoroughly analyzed by scholars despite the practical implications that such a study would have on raising funds for development as well as understanding popular support for international cooperation. To investigate the determinants of international charity, I analyze cross-national public opinion surveys from the United States and Europe in conjunction with empirical economic data. This thesis will show that beliefs on helping the poor domestically  inform not only how much people give to international charities, but  also which events or causes they are more likely to give towards.

Marilyn Hylton

Breaking the Mold: The Development of College Aspirations Among First-Generation Students

This study considers how first-generation students whose parents do not have a college education develop aspirations to attend college. Surveys were administered at two high schools, one in Boston and the other in Malden , in an attempt to compare the development of college aspirations among first-generation students and their non-first generation peers. Interviews were conducted with ten first-generation freshmen at Harvard College who were asked about the factors which led them to apply to college. Findings emphasize the importance of high expectations, support, and mentoring in the first-generation student's academic life accompanied by non-parental sources of college information.

Eoghan Stafford

Rational Social Choice & the Scottish Enlightenment

This thesis seeks to explain the faith in historical progress expressed in the Scottish Enlightenment. Through an examination of the moral and philosophical writings of Francis Hutcheson, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Dugald Stewart, I argue that these theorists constructed a narrative describing the historical development of liberal societies' capacity for collective agency. These authors believed that the interaction of two disparate phenomena ­ the rationalistic “science of man,” and the non-rationalistic “moral sentiments” ­ could foster rational collective choice and collective agency. The implications of this Scottish Enlightenment theory for contemporary debates on the nature and possibility of rational collective choice ­ particularly in the disciplines of Social Choice and Rational Choice Theory ­ will be examined. Finally, I will examine post-Enlightenment critiques of the rationalization of politics ­ by Weber, Foucault, and Habermas ­ in light of the Scottish philosophers' attempt to link the science of man to the moral sentiments and to harness the two forces in service of liberal collective choice.