Social Theory

Review for Exam One

The exam is multiple choice, maybe some matching.

The exam is worth 25 points.

Recall the domains/fields of study covered at the beginning of the course, i.e., conflict-order, objective-subjective, macro-micro, etc.  Know terms: ontology, epistemology, etc.  In which social science perspective is the researcher’s focus on group antagonism and the forces of social change and disorder?  Which perspective emphasizes order?  Etc. Know the 2X2 table presented at the end of that lecture.  Be able to locate examples covered in class within this scheme.  

According to Ibn Khaldun, what gives rise to civilization and political power? Is this similar to the theory of any other sociologists we have studied this semester?

What is the hierarchy of scientific knowledge according to Comte? What is positivism?  What is organicism?  What is the law of three stages?  What are “social statics” and “social dynamics”?  Comte and Herbert Spencer’s theories are the forerunner of which type of social science paradigm? 

Did Herbert Spencer agreed with August Comte that scientists should use discovery of the laws of societal evolution to actively help improve the human condition by using public policy and state power to direct industrial development and ameliorate poverty?  Why not?  What is social Darwinism?  What are some of the problems of organicism?  What is Spencer’s typology of militant and industrial societies? 

What is methodological holism?  What is solidarity?  What is emergent reality?  How does Durkheim define institutions?  What are problems with Durkheim’s approach?  How does he defend his approach?  For Durkheim, which type of society has a simple division of labor, face-to-face interactions, extended family relations, and shared moral understanding? What does Durkheim mean by “social facts”?  Be able to explain Durkheim’s theory of the evolution of punishment based on this model of societal transformation.  Know Durkheim’s theory of suicide. 

What is Parsons voluntaristic theory of action?  What is the unit act?  How are modes and values related in his conceptual scheme?  What are pattern variables?  How are cultural, social, and personality systems interrelated?  What is the AGIL system? 

What is Merton’s criticism of Parsons’ theory?  What does Merton call his approach?  What are the three questionable assumptions of structural-functionalism?  The stress of changing one’s status from “single person” to “married person” is managed via a ritual called a “wedding.”  Merton refers to this as what sort of function?  What is net-balance analysis?  What is Merton’s theory of deviance?  

In Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, what did he theorize was the force holding society together but at the same time transforming it?  What is the invisible hand?  What is the labor theory of value? 

G. W. F. Hegel argued the spirit of culture is materialized through a dialectical process of human action and history making. Understand his argument. Feuerbach took it a step further by inverting it and argued that human beings created god.  What is this method called? What is the logic of Feuerbach argument and why is his discovery important to the history of social theorizing? Moreover, how is it important for emancipating human beings? What does Marx take away from Feuerbach’s atheism?

Why does Marx argue that irreligious criticism is the basis of all critical theory? What is alienation? Know the “base-superstructure” model presented in Marx’s Preface and Introduction to a Critique of Political Economy and discussed at length in class? For Marx, what is the relevance of class struggle for understanding historical change?  For Marx, which social class is the dominant class in capitalist society?

For Marx, how paramount is socialization to human being? What is the essence of being human for Marx?

From Capital by Marx, what is a commodity? What is use-value? What is exchange-value? What kind of value is determined by the amount of socially abstract labor contained in the commodity? What is the difference between C-M-C and M-C-M’? How does Marx’s measure exploitation? What is the relevance of this to understanding today’s economic situation? What is the method of increasing the production of surplus value by employing laborsaving machinery? What do we mean by the “organic composition of capital”?

What is Marx and Engels basic argument in the Communist Manifesto?  What is the bourgeoisie?  What is the proletariat?  Why are these classes locked in conflict? What is the contradiction in capitalism that makes it so unstable? What are some of the tendencies in and features of capitalist development?