Spring
1999

ISF100B

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Spring 1999 Midterm Review Questions

1. Why is the 18th century called the age of reason?
2. Which concepts usually accompany the concept of reason?
3. Which is the most important counter-concept to reason in the 18th century according to Horkheimer?
4. What is the relation of reason to revelation?
5. What is Kant's and Descartes's understanding of reason?
6. How did Hegel conceive of reason?
7. What is the difference between the classical concept of reason and the 18th century concept of reason?
8. Who handled knowledge production in the middle ages?
9. Who handles knowledge production in the modern era (1700 to present)?
10. What is the relation of the ontological to the epistemological and the ethical?
11. What is the predominant ontological metaphor of the middle ages?
12. What is the predominant ontological metaphor of the 20th century?
13. What is Kant's understanding of "critique"?
14. What was the location of the unconscious in pre-18th century philosophy?
15. What does Vernunft mean in German idealism?
16. What is Nietzsche's position on German idealism?
17. How does he react to Kant's categorical imperative?
18. What is, according to Nietzsche, the function of the will to power?
19. Why is Greek culture admirable according to Nietzsche?
20. What was Nietzsche's position on Christianity?
21. What did Nietzsche think about democracy?
22. What is the difference between an active person and a reactive person according to Nietzsche?
23. What is the function of the history of instincts according to Nietzsche?
24. Compare Nietzsche's and Freud's concept of history.
25. What is a herd instinct according to Nietzsche and to Freud?
26. What is the relation between the individual and culture according to Freud?
27. What is the relation of good and evil to guilt and bad conscience in Nietzsche?
28. What kind of theories did Nietzsche develop?
29. What are the constraints Nietzsche and Freud reintroduce with respect to social action?
30. What is Freud's notion of social change?
31. What is Freud's understanding of the mental structure?
32. What are the various functions of the mental structure according to Freud?
33. What is the trajectory of an individual's mental structure?
34. Freud subscribed to two major drives. Which ones are they?
35. What is the role of sublimation in Freud's theory?
36. Where do Freud and Marx overlap in their projects?
37. What is the cause of our suffering according to Freud?
38. What is Freud's opinion regarding women's potential for civilizing processes?
39. What is the function of religion according to Freud?
40. What is phylogenesis?
41. What is the relation of Freud's system to Hegel's phenomenology?
42. Philosophical texts usually do not distinguish in terms of gender. Why does Freud do so?
43. When does sexual life begin according to Freud?
44. What are the developmental phases of a child according to Freud?
45. What is the meaning of transference for Freud?
46. Who is neurotic?
47. What does Freud mean when he says: "The child is psychologically father to the adult."
48. What is the most difficult task the analyst is faced with regarding men and women?
49. What is the major social institution Freud analyses?
50. What is Freud's definition of a subject?
51. How does Freud's understanding of the subject relate to the constitutional and jurisprudential understanding of the subject?
52. Why do individuals join groups according to Freud?
53. What is the origin of the group or its enabling feature?
54. What is the historical context of Freud's interest in group behavior?
55. Why did Freud revolutionize 20th century thought?
56. What is the major thesis of Nancy Chodorow's The Reproduction of Mothering?
57. Why does N. Chodorow focus on the pre-oedipal phase?
58. Why is women's sense of self continuous with others according to Chodorow?
59. What is problematical with N. Chodorow's notion of the family triangle?
60. Why is there gender inequality according to N. Chodorow?
61. How does the relation of the mother to son or daughter differ?
62. What are the major features of socialization for girls and for boys according to feminist theory?
63. What does Chodorow appropriate from Freud?
64. Why do men develop contempt for women according to feminist theory?
65. Why does Chodorow understand Freud's psychoanalytic theory as a political and social theory?
66. Chodorow is a psychoanalytic theorist in the object relation school. What does this mean?
67. In which way was Freud mysoginistic?
68. Why is sex central to women's oppression?
69. What does Chodorow offer to mainstream sociology?
70. What is the largest contribution of feminism to social theory?
71. What is the difference between "equality" feminists and "difference" feminists?
72. What is feminist essentialism?
73. What does the process of differentiation entail?
74. How is masculinity acquired according to feminist psychoanalytic theory?
75. Object relations feminist focus on the child as well as the mother. What is the advantage of this focus?
76. What is the difference between an absolutist political structure and a democratic political structure with respect to rights?
77. What was the most compelling political experience for the nineteenth century?
78. What was the most compelling political experience for the early twentieth century?
79. What was the primary question Wilhelm Reich attempted to solve?
80. Who, according to Reich, supported Hitler most?
81. What is the typical structure of a German mainstream family, according to Reich?
82. Why was Hitler so successful with the lower middle classes according to Reich?
83. Why did the German working class follow Hitler?
84. What are the consequences of sexual repression according to Reich?
85. How does sexual repression of young people affect them?
86. What is the basis of the authoritarian character structure?
87. What did fascism prove with respect to the middle classes?
88. What is the relation of the middle classes to the working class?
89. How is the authoritarian state reproduced?
90. How did fascist propaganda work?
91. Various theories of fascism have been developed in the 20th century. Which ones do you know?
92. What did Reich say about the swastika?
93. How do Reich and Gramsci overlap?
94. What is critical theory?
95. What is the relation of knowledge to power in critical theory?
96. What is Horkheimer's major argument in his essay on family and authority?
97. What is one of the key concepts of Horkheimer's thought?
98. Reich and Horkheimer are leading theorists concerning the concept of domination. Why?
99. How do Reich and Horkheimer differ from Marx with respect to the concept of ideology?
100. How are Horkheimer and Reich related to Gramsci's thought?