Spring 2002
PS 224 History of Western Political Thought II Prof.
McDonald
[Also the terms in Bold print in the test and
found in Glossary of H&P text)
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1. sovereignty 2. Leviathan 3. Glorious
Revolution of 1688 4. state
of nature 5. social
contract 6. covenant 7. sommum
bonum 8. English
Civil Wars 9. hedonism 10. felicity 11. laws of nature 12. scientific materialism 13. diffidence 14. “life, liberty and estate” 15. tabula rasa 16. law of nature 17. majority rule 18. private property 19. popular sovereignty 20. inalienable rights 21. theory of value 22. popular consent 23. right to revolution 24. state of war 25. tacit consent 26. Natural Rights doctrine 27. philosophical skepticism 28. romanticism 29. Emile 30. habits 31. Robinson Crusoe 32. noble savage 33. General Will 34. particular will 35. Will of All 36. “voice of nature” 37. Legislator 38. Rousseau on civil religion 39. collectivism 40. artificial man 41. natural man 42. artificial society 43. philosophe 44. pity 45. sympathy 46. functional separation of power, checks and balances 47. The Spirit of the Laws 48. division of labor 50. capital 51. consumption 52. Theory
of Moral Sentiments 53. Physiocrats 54. Invisible
Hand 55. natural
price 56. market
price 57. supply
and demand 58. monopoly 59. system
of natural liberty 60. planned
economy 61. laissez-faire 62. exchange
theory of value 63. “Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity” 64. French
Revolution 65. A
priori 66. historical
reason 67. historical
consciousness 68. tradition 69. prejudice 70. moral
imagination 71. eternal
contract of society 72. prescriptive
rights or constitution 73. egalitarianism 74. eternal
partnership 75. virtual
representation 76. Whig
political party 77. historical
reason 78. utilitarianism 79. empirical 80. hedonistic 81. Benthamism 82. utility 83. pleasure
and pain 84. “greatest
happiness principle” 85. individualism 86. enlightened
self-interest 87. egoism 88. supply
and demand 89. Corn
Laws 90. Enclosure
Acts 91. adversary
theory of truth 92. dialectical
materialis 93. capitalism 94. Adam
Smith 95. Social
Darwinism 96. evolution 97. law
of equal freedom 98. Hegelian
dialectic 99. World
Spirit history 100. Philosophical history 101. Hegel’s concept of reason 102. Hegelian state 103. bourgeoisie 104. proletariat 105. exchange value 106. surplus value 107. subsistence wages 108. permanent revolution 109. labor theory of value 110. competition 111. Justice as fairness 112. “directory committee of the ruling class” 113. alienation 114. labor theory of value 115. “religion is the opium of the people” 117. dictatorship of the proletariat 118. Superman 119. will to power 120. transvaluation of values 121. slave morality
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1. Compare and contrast the social contract
theories of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes
and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. How did each
describe the conditions of life in the state of nature and the reasons why man
entered civil society? What is the
social contract? What promises are
exchanged between sovereign and citizen, according to the social contract
theory? Why is man obligated to obey
the law? According to each thinker, is
it ever legitimate for the citizen to violate the will of the sovereign? When is revolution permissible? What individual rights were guaranteed? What makes the sovereign legitimate? What are the ends of civil society?
2. What were
the reactions of David Hume and Edmund Burke to the concept of the social
contract? Evaluate the merits of their
arguments.
3. Compare and contrast how the following theorists
described the nature of man and especially man’s capacity to apprehend moral
knowledge. What did each understand to
be the ethical basis of society?
1. Hobbes 2.
Locke 3. Rousseau
4. Hume 5.
Burke
4. What is the source of man’s misery and corruption,
according to Rousseau? How did the
institution of private property develop?
What can be done to emancipate man from the evil affects of private
property? In what respects do you see
similarities between the political thought of Rousseau and that of Marx?
5. What is the General Will? How is it realized in civil society? What restraints does Rousseau place on
majority will in his civil society? 6.In what respect is Burke a response to
Rousseauistic political thought?
Compare and contrast Burke and Rousseau on the following issues:
a. the social contract b.
individual rights c. private property d. the role of tradition e.
ethical dualism g. liberty f. equality
Evaluate the arguments of each. Can you identify any of the principles
Rousseau and Burke in contemporary conservative and liberal politicians such as
Jesse Jackson, Sen. Hillary Clinton or Rush Limbaugh?
7. Describe Montesquieu’s theory of the separation of
powers and its importance to the Framers of the United States Constitution.
8. What was the “Mercantile System” and why did Adam Smith criticize it? What did Smith believe the source of a nation’s wealth really was? How does the division of labor increase production? To what extent should the government attempt to control and regulate the economy? What should the functions of government be limited to? Did Smith believe that a planned economy was possible? Explain. What economic factors did he believe would regulate the operations of the marketplace?
9. How should government
determine the greatest good for the people in society according to
Bentham? What is the ethical basis for
society? Would Burke and Bentham have
agreed on the ultimate ends for government?
On what issues would Hobbes and Bentham agree? What is the best form of government, according to Bentham? What is its role? Would he and Adam Smith agree basically on what the role of
government should be? What did each
think of the principles of laissez-faire economics? On what issues did John Stuart Mill break
with Bentham?
What was
Mill’s definition of liberty and why did he think it was necessary for human
progress? Did he ever come to doubt the
principle of absolute freedom of speech?
Why? Evaluate his reasons. In what respects did Mill move away from
narrow Benthamism?
10. Explain Social Darwinism. What role did Herbert Spencer believe that
government had in improving the welfare of society? Why did Spencer believe that governments frequently retard the
process of social evolution? Explain
his law of equal freedom and describe how it differs from either Bentham’s
Principle of Utility and Mill’s concept of liberty. Explain how the state interferes with the natural adaptive
process of society. Spencer opposed
what social services that are typically provided by the modern state?
11. Describe the role of Reason in Hegel’s
thought. What is the Hegelian
dialectic? Explain the meaning and
significance of the World Spirit?
Explain Hegel’s understanding of the State. Describe his views on the Constitution, the Executive and the
Legislature.
12. Explain the meaning of Marx’s statement,
“Religion is the opium of masses.”
Explain the reasons for social change according to Marx’s materialist
interpretation of history. What does
Marx mean when he writes that “social existence determines consciousness”? What forces bring about social
revolution? Why does Marx claim that
his theory of history is scientific?
Why must class antagonisms in the capitalist society inevitably grow
greater? What is the function of the
dictatorship of the proletariat:? After the revolution, why does Marx predict
the state will wither away? Why will
man be emancipated from the alienation from which he has historically suffered
in the communist society? Discuss the
following question: Is Marxism
scientific?
13. Discuss the origins of Islam. Would Muslims favor strict separation of
religion and politics? Explain. Why do many Islamic fundamentalists see
modernity as a threat to the Islamic faith?
Are Islamic and Western political values in fundamental conflict?
1/4/2002 1:28:51 PM