Readings
Description of Exam #1
Students will be asked to respond to questions related to three of the following five areas of social thought. Each response will be valued at 15 points.
- Questions Related to the Primer in Philosophy.
- Describe realism and idealism as they compare with one another.
- Describe realism and nominalism as they compare with one another.
- Describe idealism and materialism as they compare with one another.
- Describe positivism, logical positivism, and the role of positivism in the social sciences.
- Questions Related to the Primer in Science (answer two of the three parts to this question).
- Describe the postivist approach to science (i.e., rules of nominalism, operationalism, value-free science, and unity of science) and the phenomenological critique of the positivist approach.
- Describe the hypothetico-deductive approach to science and the problems of induction and deduction in science.
- Describe the community of scholars approach to science and the limitations of this approach.
- Questions Related to the Primer in Theory Construction (answer two of the three parts to this question).
- Define theory and explain the importance to theory of abstractness and the intersubjective opinion of the community of scholars.
- Describe these forms of scientific statements: existence, relational, associational, causal.
- Describe theoretical propositions, hypotheses, and operational definitions.
- Questions Related to the Primer in the Enlightenment (answer three of the five parts to this question).
- Although Machiavelli's The Prince was written as a treatise on government, it can provide valuable lessons also for a science of society. In what ways does The Prince inform sociology?
- When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg, he made a statement regarding religious freedom for the commoner. At the same time, he made a statement about social organization. What can sociology learn from the religious philosophy of Martin Luther?
- Thomas Hobbes wrote that without a strong, authoritarian government, life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." What did Hobbes mean by this statement and why did he favor a strong central government?
- John Locke preferred a government of the people. How did his beliefs about the nature of humans and his perspectives on the economy influence his opinions about social organization?
- List five key features of the "conservative reaction" to the liberal individualism of Locke and Rousseau.
- It might be said that Saint-Simon combined a conservative reaction to liberal individualism with an appeal to using the scientific method to understand and organize society. In what ways did Saint-Simon lay the foundation for the development of a functionalist approach to sociology?
- Questions Related to the Primer in Classical Economics (answer two of the three parts to this question).
- The works of Adam Smith help us better understand the invisible hand of the marketplace, the morality of "serving oneself," and the importance of decentralized economic systems. Describe each of these three concepts.
- The works of David Ricardo help us better understand comparative advantage, the causes of inflation, the law of diminishing returns, and the theory of rents. Describe each of these concepts.
- The works of Vilfredo Pareto help us better understand the Pareto principle and residues and derivations. Describe each of these concepts.
Help Session
The help session for this exam is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. We will meet on the first floor of East Hall and find an open classroom to hold the help session.
Dr. Sapp's Office Hours are MWF, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., or by appointment. Students are invited to come to the office at any time to discuss the class materials.
