Joseph, Here is another idea. Material development without corresponding cultral sophistication is a dead end.

'Material develpment not accompanied with well-developed civilization cannot proceed much farther.' I find the sentence meaningful and grammatically correct. That's why there's no need to change it or add other words. I think you haven't expressed it differently when you said 'cultural sophistication'. Instead, you used another expression that doesn't mean the same as 'well-developed civilization'. A well-developed civilization should have all the conditions for success and development, not only in 'culture' but also economic, social and political development or prosperity. That's why I prefer to use 'well-developed civilization' to 'cultural sophistication'. The sentence means 'Material development without well-developed civilization cannot proceed farther', that's why I said it's absolutely correct. * 'Further' is usually preferred when talking about the degree or extent of something. However, we can use both 'farther' and 'further' to talk about distance.

All though the first sentance is technically correct, I do think yours is better.though I also agree with learner that well developed civilisation sounds slighty better. I think my own personal style of writing it would be Material develpment not accompanied by a well-developed civilization cannot hope to proceed much further. or Material development not accompained by a well developing society can not hope to procced further.

Hello Joseph, The expression " well-developed civilization" doesn't sound so adequate in this context. Your sentence is correct. You better use "further" here. "Farther" is used more frequently in the physical sense. There are various ways to express the same with other words as for example : " Material development must go hand in hand with cultural sophistication to proceed further." "Cultural sophistication is an essential requirement for material development to proceed further ."