Classical Theory Summer 2008

1.    Sociology came into being in the 1800s out of what “intellectual conditions”?

a.     Enlightenment thinking and the breakdown of traditional structures of political economy

b.    Results of changes in religion that came with the breakdown of Catholicism to Protestantism

c.    The result of advances in “hard” science, creating the wish to make study of social life a science, too

d.    The unanticipated result of colonialism, which involved trade, travel and travel books which pointed out the wide variety of cultures

e.    All of the above
.

2.    The classical theorists think (best answer)

a.    Scientifically rather than religiously:  hence, they experiment and measure rather than faith

b.    On a grand scale, of total societies, with a wide historical sweep; of societies like mechanisms, machines or “systems”

c.    Of intimate, face-to-face interaction among humans as it differs from contact in other species

d.    They thought only of their own societies and hence are value-bound

e.    They are skeptics
 

3.    Name the social institutions that broke down or got reconstituted in European countries at the time when Sociology came into being

a.    Politics & Economics

b.    Religion & Urbanization

c.    Education and Family

d.    Global trade & inter-national economic relations

e.    All of the above
.

4.    The “rights of man” was an idea that

a.    Came directly from religion

b.    Has been tried again and again in history to free humans

c.    Was distinctly not about women

d.    Infused an entire era, intellectuals and the masses alike, with revolutionary fervor

e.    Died
 

5.    Sociologists came into being when physical sciences were making strides; this made sociologists

a.    Want to claim that their field was moral and political rather than scientific

b.    Want to disassociate from natural or “hard” sciences and start unique “social” sciences

c.    Want to emulate (copy) hard sciences & discover natural laws that govern social relations
 

6.    The man who is credited with having started sociology and given the name Sociology to the field is

a.    Karl Marx                                                             c.  Auguste Comte

b.    Emile Durkheim                                                   d. Max Weber

.

7.    How did the classicists tend to feel about slavery?

a.  Justice, peace, progress were calls of the new intelligentsia: this included being anti-slavery

b.  Justice, peace, progress were calls of the new intelligentsia, but only for the privileged race

c.   They were in favor of slavery

d.   Neutral

8.     Marx’s theory is known to be ‘value free’.  A.)  True  b.) False

9.     Marx admired the liberal social philosophers of his day.  A. ) True  b.)  False

10.   The 1800s belief in human reason gave rise to the belief that a social order could almost be legislated, i.e., as soon as people learned what “works” we would move towards it.  a.) T   b.) F

11.  Marx differed from the liberal philosophers, but he shared their moral presuppositions about the rights of man.  A.)  True  b.)  False

12.  As it turned out, European history showed us that (choose the best answer)

a.    People have a social need to belong to groups/communities greater (larger) than themselves

b.    Human nature can create a social order emanating just from the goodness of each individual

c.    There are no social laws

d.    Sociologists were right:  the same social laws fit every society

13.  History shows that humans are rational and progressive creatures and not “locked” into ancient customs and traditions like the divinely ordained King and God:  Humans are not seeking a “single answer.”  (This has no right or wrong answer, but it will be marked wrong if an answer is omitted.)

a.   True – the movement of human history is an inexorable movement towards freedom 

b.   False –history shows repeatedly that people need “idols” (“leaders”) to rally ‘round

c.   Neither false nor true – we see humans in conflict and poverty and in creativity and peace

d.  The trajectory of history moves towards a future that will integrate self & group in new ways

14.  Which forces influenced the tone and content and vision of Marx’s writings

a.   The industrial revolution                                            c.  The immiseration of the proletariat

b.   The breakdown of church and state                         d.  All of these

15.  Comte believed

a.    God is great

b.    Entropy increases

c.    There will be Sociology Kings

d.    Social science will give way to secularism

e.    Religion will survive
 

16.   The industrial revolution cut man off from nature, God, and sometimes even the (divinely ordained) King.  A.  true   B.  false

17.  What term captures the innate capacity of one class to negate, challenge, and overthrow the domination of another and change into a new type of domination:

a.    Social structure                                                              d. Ideology

b.    Violence                                                                         e. Class warfare

c.    The dialectic

18.  The conscious proletariat is

a.    A stage after collective oppression                          d.  Classless

b.    False class consciousness                                           e. The lumpenproletariat

c.    Alienated

19.  According to Marx, revolution and classlessness was

a.    Delayed         b. a matter of probability       c.  Inevitable             d. Praxis

20.  Marx questioned every form of domination.  A.) True  b.) False

21.  Marx realized we would always have private property.  A. True b. False

22.  In the capitalistic system, class conflict is based upon

a.    Alienation and immiseration, Avarice and fetishism

b.    The relationships of ownership of the means of production

c.    Class consciousness

d.    All of the above

e.    None of the above

23.  As capitalism proceeds in time there are fewer & fewer mergers, closures, monopolies.  A.)  T   B). F

24.  The more value a worker creates, according to Marx, the more valuable he becomes.  A.  T  B.  F

25.  The worker has

a.    Alienation from his labor                                         d. More poverty the more he has to work

b.    Alienation from exchange                                       e. All of these

c.    Propertylessness

26.  By “the means of subsistence” Marx means

a.    Workers’ wages                                                    e. Insurance

b.    Profit is pursued by any means

c.    Means of production serve both classes, but unequally

d.    Productivity is always done with exploitation

27.  For Marx, there are many forms of alienation.  What is not one of those forms

a.    The estrangement between things and things                                                                            c. Production itself

b.    The product of labor                                               d.  The activity of alienation

28.  According to Marx, unlike the animal, the human produces and forms things in accordance with the laws of beauty.  A.) true  b.) false

29.  While Marx believed that most ideology springs from the material substructure, even he recognizes that ideas have a life of their own.  A. ) true  b) false

30.  Government in a capitalist society is

a.    The ruling class                                                 e.  All of these

b.    There to uphold private property

c.    Increasingly managed by an interlocking few

d.    Continually adjusting to keep the proletariat at bay

31.      For Marx, the realization of one’s “species being” was

a.    Acceptance of one’s “lot in life”                          d.  Competition

b.    The creative potential in each of us             e.  C and D

c.    The destiny of class warfare

32.      In Marx’s grand theory and vision of the world, which element “wins out” in the long run

a.    Exploitation                                                                         d. All of these so far

b.    Alienation                                                                            e. Creativity

c.    Misery (“immiseration”)

33.    What prevents a class from being a “class for itself”? 

a.     Immiseration and Exploitation                                            d. 2 of these – which 2? (note on Scantron)

b.    Self interests                                                                      e. All of these

c.    Alienation

34.    Festishism is: 

a.      An odd interest in feet                                                       c.  Class dependent. 

b.      Attributing to objects a value they do not have        d. Exploitation  

35.    Steps in the evolution of capitalism are many.  Which one is not a step?

a.    Constant revolutionizing of production

b.    Finding new wants

c.    Agglomerate the population – centralize

d.    Leave the most barbarous nations isolated and not drawn into it

e.    Create a world after its own image

36.      To Marx, capital is a social power, not a personal power. 
A.  True        b. False        c. capital belongs to the bourgeoisie

37.    Software engineers working in a company have, potentially, power.  What do they need to activate that power in their own interests, according to Marx? (very best answer):

a.    To exploit the bourgeoisie                             c.  Class consciousness

b.    A goal, a plan                                                 d.  Immiseration

38.    One line from “Office Space” was, “I work more and more and I don’t see another dime for it.”  Of what is that an example?

a.  The Proletariat, since the character were workers

b.  The Bourgeoisie, since the characters where white collar workers

c.  Alienation

d.  Immiseration

e.  The dialectic

39.      To Marx, the proletariat owns its own labor power

a.  True               b. False, the labor power of the proletariat belongs to the bourgeoisie

40.      Marx said if objects could speak they would say

a.  Good workers made us

b.  The bourgeoisie profited from us

c.  Our use value is not a real part of us

d.  Creation is not in us

41.      In “Office Space”, the lead character admitted to working very few hours.  The consultants reported, “Peter is a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.”  After that, he got a promotion rather than a firing.  In comic, exaggerated terms, a Marxian view might be.

a.The bourgeoisie always rise up the ladder

b.Outside consultants are almost always “out of touch”

c.If the more I work, the less I make, so, too the less I work, the more I make

d.The dialectic of smart – silly – leads to a solution

e.Praxis

42.    At first, Peter (main character) couldn’t get his partners-in-crime to go along with them.  One said, “I’ve got a good job,” and clearly he didn’t want to risk it.  What did he exhibit, according to a Marxist view, by this reply?

a.Alienation                                                                   d. Control

b.False class consciousness                                    e. the Dialectic

c.Immiseration

43.       “Office Space” – the opening scene has everyone commuting in a big traffic jam.  What aspect of Marx’s theory articulates this condition of human beings the best?  Defend choice in one line....Alienation from the means of production

a.A “class in itself”                                                    c. Proletariat

b.Immiseration                                                              d. Bourgeoisie

44.   What 3 institutions are interlocked according to Marx?  In what order?

45.  For Marx

a.    It was not necessary to have a plan for classlessness; it will happen naturally - it is inevitable.

b.    Violence is part of an inevitable movement towards a nice society 

c.    He realized that he had to call people to join and fight

d.    The human potential inside us drives everything:  Every revolution is a working out of a seed of freedom inside us

e.        All except one above:  which one is not true:  _____

Quiz II  Durkheim

1. What was Durkheim’s worry about industrial society?

   1. Too much alienation                           d.  Capitalism

   2. Too much crime                                 e.  Restitution takes over as the type

   3. Too much individualism                                          of legal system

2. Durkheim divided societies into two types.  Which were his terms for this:

   1. Primitive and Modern                          d.  Mechanical and Organic

   2. Tribal and Industrial                             e.  Mechanical and Restitutive

   3. Repressive and Restitutive

3. Durkheim considered norms to be central to society; they are best considered to be

   1. Agreed upon

   2. Outside the individual as constraint

   3. Divided by Durkheim into sacred rules and moral rules

   4. No longer felt by individuals in industrial society

   5. All of the above

4. Marx is to Durkheim as

   1. Materialism is to capitalism                d.  Hegel is to Engels

   2. Idealism is to morality                         e.  Revolution is to anarchy

   3. Earth is to air

5. How did Durkheim distinguish between moral rules and rules of technique? 

   1. Rules of technique remain clearly separated from moral rules—no overlap

   2. Moral rules are those which are agreed upon by most members of a group

   3. Technical rules came into being with the industrial and technological revolutions

   4. Rules of technique need enforcement by technicians

   5. None of the above

6. Why did Durkheim choose suicide as the topic of his largest empirical research

   1. Suicide is always a major topic for social scientists

   2. Suicides had been increasing after the industrial revolution

   3. Suicide rates would show that there are ways to understand suicide sociologically

   4. There was research money for this study but not for other topics

   5. Suicide is a sin and must be understood or there is no foundation for social life

7. Per  Durkheim, the weakening of collective conscience under organic solidarity may lead to:  

   1. A cataclysm unforeseen by traditional oracles

   2. Individual solidity since the social bonds are loosened

   3. Anomie                                                         d.  Alienation

   4. Alienation                                                       e.  Angst

8. Mechanical solidarity is characterized by which of the following

   1. Repressive law                                           d.  Redundant law, emphasizing unity

   2. Women’s suffrage                                          e.  Differentiation

   3. Organic culture

9. Organic solidarity is characterized by

   1. Disease and Lawlessness                             d.  High integration from members

   2. Repressive law                                            e.  High individualism

   3. High regulation from the top

10. Restitutive law operates specifically on

    1. Agreement upon the laws                              d.  Equality in status

    2. Strong punishment of violators                 e.  None of these

    3. Rehabilitation, following the ideals of the enlightenment

11. Durkheim argued that sociologists should treat social facts as

    1. Abstractions worthy of grand theory               d.  Things

    2. Annoyances                                                 e.  Habits

    3. Values and preferences

12. According to Durkheim, one factor was primary cause of the change to modern society:

    1. An increase in rational activity                        d.   A decrease in appropriate rationality

    2. A decrease in interdependence                       e.  None of these

    3. An increase in dynamic diversity

13. For Durkheim, there was no concern with how democratic our associations are in an organic society as long as we are in more than one of them.  A.)  true   b.) false

14. Many items can be on a totem, but a tribe could not consider a frog sacred. a.) T  b.) F

15. Which topical area was not one of Durkheim’s

    1. Normative life                                                  d.  Associations

    2. Religious life                                                    e.  Law

    3. Marketplace Purchasing

16. Not all groups have religion; hence, not all groups divide sacred from profane.  A.) T  b.) F

17. The suicide type where there is intense regulation but weak integration into social life is:

    1. Anomic suicide                                               d.  Rational suicide

    2. Fatalistic suicide                                          e.  Altruistic suicide

    3. Egoic suicide

18. Altruistic suicide is when someone commits suicide as a favor to another associate (family member or otherwise).  A.  True  B.  False

19. Suicide varies (which is false)

    1. Inversely with the degree of political integration

    2. Positively with the degree of domestic integration

    3. Inversely with the degree of normative regulation

20. Durkheim did not mean to indicate that we give all meaning to things and social relations:  some things and relations have a meaning of their own.  A.  True  B.  False

21. What would Durkheim probably pick as the function of crime and social control for a society:

    1. Clean out the bad element                              d. population control

    2. Unity                                                           e. employment

    3. innovation

22. What was Durkheim’s justification for believing suicide has social causes

    1. Rates are stable over time

    2. Each society produces a unique rate

    3. When social organization changes, suicide rate changes<