Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Core 250 Exam Four
FINALLY! Too bad it's not during finals :(
81
History
Undergraduate 2
12/11/2010

Additional History Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term

Compare and contrast Marx and Hegel on their understanding of the development of history.  

Definition

Hegel:

dialectic: there is an idea, mind, and spirit that is beyond this world. Whenever we try to catch it, we are claiming a thesis. The thesis can't explain the idea/mind/spirit, so the antithesis is found, which together with the thesis forms into a synthesis and continues on.

 

Marx liked that idea, but also took the idea from Feuerbach that there are only material forces--no idea/mind/spirit.

Term

Explain Marx's idea of alienation.  Be sure to include all three types.  

Definition

Definition: we work for our existence, it's not a part of our essence

 

Types:

from our labor: don't feel connected to what we're making

from ourselves: we have two selves: the on the job self and the off the job self. The harder we work, the less we are worth

from each other: we must compete for jobs, different class interests, classes develop as a result

 

Term

What are the five epochs of history according to Marx?  

Definition

  1. primitive community: thesis which leads to antithesis
  2. slavery: produces more goods, not very efficient
  3. feudalism: don't belong to a person, belong to the land
  4. capitalism: sell yourself: produces many more goods (better than feudalism)
  5. socialism: workers take over, the state withers away

Term

Explain economic determinism.  

Definition

Money makes your decisions (production and districubtion of goods) 

 

Politics, religion, laws etc are built on the base of natural resources

Term

Give two of the criticisms of Marx and explain how a Marxist might respond.  What was Bakunin’s criticism of Marx?  How might Marx respond?

Definition

  1. Why not industrialized countries? All countries with Marxist revolutions were feudal Answer: the problem is that we're trying to do two things at once 
  2. The state will wither away?! A: we're new at this, we've only been doing this since 1917, A2: No real communist countries, A3: it will only work if it works for the whole world
  3. Bakunin: This sounds great, but people aren't like that, people are basically greedy. A: you've been taught to be greedy

Term

What is the difference between the Lamarckian and Darwinian explanation of change in a species?

 

Definition

Lamark: conscious drive and inheritance of acquired traits (giraffes want to stretch)

 

Darwin: 1. struggle for existence, competition occurs (only some survive and reproduce) 2. survival is not random (traits that enhance survival are passed on) 3. overtime there is an accumulation of these traits

Term

What is the difference between observation and inference (forming an hypothesis)?

 

Definition

Observation: what you can actually see happen

 

inference: an educated guess as to what will happen or the pattern based on the observations

Term

What are the steps of the scientific method?

 

Definition

  1. Observation of phenomena
  2. creation of hypothesis
  3. make a prediction based on hypothesis
  4. perform experiments to prove hypothesis false

Term

What are the consequences of using the scientific method?

 

Definition

If your hypothesis, experiement are disproven, then you discard

 

If it's not disproven, you start over a lot.

Term

Explain the value of a theory when it is ‘just a theory’?

 

Definition
A theory can't always be trusted because it is never completely proven, there is always a chance that it will eventually be proven
Term

Explain the limitations of a theory as imposed by the scientific method.

Definition
theories are never proven, not something you can believe in
Term

Explain natural selection.

Definition
There is undirected variation in offspring, some traits enhance survival, if the trait enhances survival such that reproduction is increased then the trait will be passed along to the next generation, less advantaged are selected out and their genes perish with them
Term

Explain Freud’s challenge to the Rationalist Credo.  How rational are we?

 

Definition
Humans are merely leftovers of the Enlightenment, and such have an optimism regarding reason
Term

Name and describe the structures of Freud’s tripartite model of the mind.

 

Definition

  • Id: unconscious, irrational, pleasure. Fueled by instincts
  • Ego: rational, reality (meet your needs)
  • Superego: ideal self: morality

Term

unconscious

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: self of which we're not aware

Significance: the id

Term

libido

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: psychic energy, something going on all the time, fueled by energy

Significance: HELP?

Term

sublimation

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: redirecting

Significance: a defense mechanism

Term

repression

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: forgetting

Significance: defense mechanism

Term

eros

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: life-seeking, sexual

Significance: id

Term

thanatos

Definition

Source: Freud

Definition: destruction

Significance: id

Term

In what respects is Freud a determinist?

 

Definition

We determined by unconscious instincts (eros) and use defense mechanisms (repression, rationalization, sublimation)

 

  1. stages: instinct driven--done mostly by age five
  2. patterns: set for life by five
  3. main point: nature and nurture

Term

What is Skinner’s contribution to our understanding of “anthropology,” especially the nature of determinism?

 

Definition

Assumes:

 

  1. We are all empty organisms coming into the world (we bring no nature with us)
  2. environment causes behavior (everything learned is from environment)
  3. behaviors follow lawful patterns (man is machine)

 

Term

Describe Skinner’s view of mental processes, and his critique of traditional views of human reason.

 

Definition

  • reason is irrelevant (doesn't account for any of our behavior)
  • private and public events subject to the same laws (things that can't be observed)
  • self knowledge is limited (always has to be reinforced)
  • thoughts do not cause behaviors (both thoughts/behaviors influenced by environment)

Term

positive reinforcement

Definition

Source: Skinner

Definition: introduce positive consequences 

Significance: behavior change

Term

negative reinforcement

Definition

Source: Skinner

Definition: remove or avoid negative condition

Significance: behavior change

Term

punishment

Definition

Source: Skinner

Definition: introduce negative consequence

Significance: behavior change

Term
extinction
Definition

Source: Skinner

Definition: no consequence

Significance: behavior change

Term

shaping

Definition

Source: Skinner

Definition: successive approximations reinforcing each step

Significance: behavior change

Term

freedom is an illusion

Definition

 

Source: Skinner

Definition: freedom just means sufficient reward

Significance:we use freedom inconsistently

 

Term

What are the three stages along life's way?  How are Agamemnon and Abraham examples of the last two stages?  

Definition

Stages of life: Aesthetic, Ethical, Religious

 

  Agamemnon: 

·      He doesn’t want to sacrifice his daughter

·      Gives us his own pleasure (having his daughter) for all these other people

·      Tragic hero

 

 Abraham and Isaac

·      There’s no ethical reason to do it

·      God is calling on him to be unethical

·      Tempted to be ethical

Term

What does Kierkegaard reject in Hegel?  Why?  Is there anything he might accept?  How does his critique of Hegel compare with Marx's?

Definition

Reject:

 

  • why we we assume things are progressing? 
  • all oppositions are swallowed up (creates apathy and is demoralizing) 
  • irrelevant to daily life (philosophic fragments: they have nothing to do with each other, but that's how life is)
  • there is no freedom for the individual (can be anything)
MARX: HELP

 

Term

Aesthetic stage

Definition

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: live for pleasure 

Significance: stages on way of life, most people live here

Term

Ethical stage

Definition

 

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: give up own pleasure for the good of others (gives up everything even if it hurts like crazy)

Significance: stages on way of life, Knight of Infinite Resignation

 

Term
Religious stage
Definition

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: give up-even our ethics-to God

Significance: Stages of Life: Knight of Faith (Abraham)

Term

Objective Truth

Definition

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: Truths for which there are objective criteria to determine truth or falsehood

Significance: detached knowing

Term

Subjective Truth

Definition

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: We are what we do

Significance: make it true for you by believing and acting

Term

Leap of Faith

Definition

 

Source: Kierkegaard

Definition: it can be discerned only with the eye of faith, in the passion of inwardness on the basis of objective uncertainty. 

 Significance: basis of belief

 

Term

Dionysian

Definition

Source: Nietzsche 

Definition: Non-rational, instinct, adventure, dauntless suffering

Significance: abandonment and loss of self: Live dangerously!

Term

Apollonian

Definition

 

Source: Nietzsche 

Definition: Rational: peace, leisure, tranquility

Significance: the ability to harness destructive power and transmute into creative acts "Nothing in excess"

 

Term

Will to Power

Definition

Source: Nietzsche 

Definition: a will to dominate

Significance: universal

Term

Consolations of Man

Definition

 

Source: Nietzsche 

Definition: protecting self from the terrifying fact that there is no God

Significance: you are own your own

 

Term

the Herd

Definition

Source: Nietzsche 

Definition: the majority of people; afraid of new and filled with resentment toward anyone who thinks they're better

Significance: is convinced all are equal

Term

Contrast the Master morality to the Slave morality (include an explanation of the terms good, bad, & evil).  

Definition

Master Morality:

 

  • strong, powerful, noble, has a powerful presence, knows his own worth, instinct for honor, open minded, courageous
  • live with style
  • Good: traits that make man respected and feared
  • bad: anything that is weak, the herd
Slave Morality:
  • Christians take what is weak and make it a virtue
  • disillusion of the herd
  • tool created as a big lie
  • useful in manipulating people
  • Good: humility: the good exists "out there"
  • evil: anything that goes against the well being of the herd (elevated an individual)

 

Term

What does it require to become an adult?  How is Nietzsche’s atheism heroic?

Definition

One must:

  • realize God is dead (there never is)
  • say yes to live
  • become fully awake--ubermensch
Heroic:
living out his will of power

Term

What did Nietzsche mean by "God is dead"?   

Definition
There was never a God, he doesn't matter any more because people have stopped acting as if there was a God
Term

What is the effect of the death of God on the slaves?  on the masters?   

Definition

Master:

Death of God is relatively minor for the heroes

 

Herd:

devastating for the herd, values have collapsed

Term

How is Nietzsche similar to Kierkegaard?  To Sartre? [to Dostoevsky?]  How is he different? What affirmations are common to these existentialists? [On what do they all agree?]

 

 

Definition

N/K: believe in freedom, but K believes in God: person decides, N believes God is dead

 

N/S: can't rely on truth, must give up idea of God, but S believes everyone can do it

 

N/D: freedom, but D believes that freedom creates a burden

Term

radical freedom

Definition

Source: Sartre 

Definition: a sickening sense of uncertainty

Significance: it makes us ill if we're honest about it

Term

being-in-itself

Definition

 

Source: Sartre 

Definition: Without consciousness

Significance: approach to living

 

Term

being-for-itself

Definition

 

 

Source: Sartre 

Definition: With consciousness

Significance: approach to living

 

 

Term

bad faith

Definition

 

Source: Sartre 

Definition: self-deception

Significance: freedom is terrifying, therefore we hold onto things that make us feel less free

 

Term

intersubjectivity

Definition

 

Source: Sartre 

Definition: everyone is in this together

Significance: The reality is that there is still a shared experience

 

Term

Explain what Sartre meant by “existence precedes essence.”

Definition

 

Humans existed before there was an essence for humans. We are not like scissors, which came into being because something needed to be cut. Because Sartre does not believe in God, he believes that we exist and nothing more.

 

Term

According to Sartre, what does it mean to “become an adult?”  How does his view differ from the existentialism of Kierkegaard?  Nietzsche?

 

Definition

Sartre would say that you must shed all expectation, avoid bad faith, and take your own responsibility.

 

Kierkegaard would say that you can never become an adult because all you care about is pleasure.

 

Nietzsche would say that only a select few, "heroes" can become adults.

Term

Contrast the five points of Modern and Postmodern epistemologies.  What are some of the practical implications of Postmodern, as opposed to Modern, epistemology.

Definition

Modern:

  1. timeless: isn't just true for one period
  2. certain: truth that is not subject to reexamination
  3. foundational: basis that we build other things
  4. objective without divine grounding: I can ground knowledge in what I do
  5. Known by undifferentiated, generic human individuals: totally objective and apart from who I am as an individual
Postmodern:
  1. historical: all knowledge is grounded within a particular time and place
  2. probable: "true in the middle" no necessarily on the edges
  3. systemic: each piece fits and supports every other piece
  4. known by communities: truth is whatever our community agrees on
  5. Constructed (no transcendental grounding): there is nothing transcendent so you can't find knowledge, but you can construct one
Practical implications:
I have no idea, please kill me now.

Term

Why is Derrida suspicious of meta-narratives?  

Definition
Derrida has a general suspicion of anything that tries to explain everything. How can  you have an explanation for everything when there is nothing outside language, which is used to explain everything?
Term

Explain the objection that Derrida's writings are self-refuting.  How does Derrida answer this objection?

Definition

Don't his writings represent a conceptual order, an attempt to communicate "meaning"? Is this not exactly what he said to not do?

 

Response:

Destabilizes languages, and puts words under "erasure" (uses a word then crosses it out, saying there is no such things) to get you to realize there is nothing.

Term

there is nothing outside the text

Definition

 

Source: Derrida

Definition: There's nothing outside of the language to explain language

Significance: language never captures the "presence" of the thing it is trying to express

 

 

Term

metaphysics of presence

Definition

 

Source: Derrida 

Definition: there is no origin of knowledge from which truth can be made presence

Significance:  any attempt to explain what "meaning" means will self-destruct

 

Term

meta-narrative

Definition

Source: Derrida 

Definition: an over-arching explanation for everything

Significance: worldview; how people live

Term

Nature is a-grammatical

Definition

Source: Nietzsche

Definition: we make up the subdivision

Significance: not everybody thinks the same way, such as Polish people don't have wrists

 

Term

Canon

Definition

Source: Postmodernism

Definition: More or less approve books

Significance:  Selects the best of the best

Term

DWEM literature

Definition

 

Source: Postmodernism

Definition: Dead White Eurocentric Males

Significance: It is not "universal" as previously thought. I can never be a middle class white female.

 

Term

Identity Politics

Definition

 

Source: Multiculturalism

Definition: Your political identity is very influential on how you read the text

Significance: canons are oppressive and unacceptable, we make our own meaning

 

Term

DuBois: the Negro as a Problem

Definition

 

Source: DuBois

Definition: distinctly a minority

Significance: quest for self-consciousness, false hope coupled with vast despair

 

Term

 Double Consciousness

Definition

 

 

Source: DuBois

Definition: a double way of looking at oneself: seeing through the eyes of another

Significance: Aware that they are always being looked at

 

 

Term

the Other

Definition

 

Source: DuBois

Definition: seeing how dominate culture sees us but also how we see ourselves

Significance:  stereotypes are based on actions

 

Term

In what ways does Postmodernism pose a critique of the Enlightenment Project?

 

Definition
Die Core 250, DIE.
Term

Explain the positions of both the Cultural Conservatives and the Enlightened Traditionalists in response to the canon.  

 

Definition

Enlightenment:

Open the cannon: it's not big enough, not perfect, not complete. the idea that it should remain closed is the WRONG approach to the canon.

 

Cultural: 

All the canons are oppressive: they favor white middle class. We need to decide what goes in by recovering our heritage. There are real differences between traditions and heritage, and we need to bring them out, not ignore them.

 

Term

Indicate how both the Multiculturalists and the Separatists differ from the Cultural Conservatives and Enlightened Traditionalists in their response to the canon, and how they differ from each other in their treatment of "dominant culture" texts and minority texts. 

 

Definition

M/S:

Canons are oppressive

recover heritage/not smooth out differences

 

C/E:

Canons closed/open

civilization is fragile/need universal readers

Term
 How are the Multiculturalists and Separatists representative of Post-Modernism?
Definition
Both focus on the individual, have strong emphasis on discovering differences and not "smoothing them out"
Term

Describe the assumptions of liberal feminism.  In what ways is liberal feminism a “modern” movement?

Definition

Feminists are man-haters, bra-burners and obsolete.

 

It is a modern movement that seeks justice for women.

Term

What are major differences between premodern, modern and postmodern worldviews—especially when it comes to human nature?  What implications do these views have for attitudes toward gender?

Definition

Premodern:

universals are known through reason

fixed sex difference

 

Modern:

rejection of previous ages

males and females are similarities, and that's what matters

 

Postmodern:

no meta-narritive 

recognize differences of experience

Term

How has postmodern feminism changed discussions of epistemology?

Definition
The tradition is that the idea is autonomous (Descartes) but alternatives have been detachment and autonomy.
Term

How have feminists like Carol Gilligan challenged traditional (i.e., Kantian) views of ethics?

Definition

Tradition: highest levls of morality are rations: impersonal "do your duty"

 

Alternative: ethics of care vs. ethics of duty: maternal thinking consider private life as well as public

Term

 

What is subjective truth?  In what ways is it superior to objective truth?  How does it help us avoid the agony of decision making?  

 

Definition

Source: Kierkegaard 

Definition: we are what we do

Significance: acceptable cure for the agony

 

Superior to objective: we need involved knowing, not detached knowing, which objective gives us

 

Helps us avoid agony: make it true for you

Term
Authority
Definition

Source: Dostoevsky

Definition: A craving for universal unity

Significance: true meaning of the temptation

Term
Mystery
Definition

Source: Dostoevsky

Definition: someone to keep my conscience

Significance: true meaning of temptation

Term
Miracle
Definition

Source: Dostoesky

Definition: someone to worship

Significance: true meaning of temptation

Term
What does Jesus offer humanity?
Definition
The burden of freedom. "Jesus, you don't love us enough. You refuse to give us what we want, but give us what we don't.
Term
Kiss
Definition
I understand and respect you, but we don't have to agree on it because we have the freedom to choose and respond the way we like.
Supporting users have an ad free experience!