CVSP 203 Final, Fall 2004

OF BEIRUT CVSP 203 - Dr Wrisley Final Exam - 29 January 2004 This midterm is in three parts. No books or notes are to be used in answering the questions. Absolute silence is required in the room. Eyes on your own paper. PartI:; Identifications (20 points). Choose two (2) of the following five (5) quotations below. As best as you can in about 5 sentences, identify (a) from what text it comes and the author (b) its context within the work or in what argument it is found (c) its significance to the work as a whole, that is, what are some of the major themes of the author’s work reflected in it. A. Ice thaws upon the river , ice melts on the streams, / They are freed again as the spring sun gleams. / The valley is green with new life, new hopes; / Old winter is beaten — see how it withdrew / To skulk up there on rough mountain-slopes! / And now in its weakness all it can do / Is to scatter hail in impotent showers / Over the meadows as they turn green ... / And the countryside is still short of flowers, / So the people instead, dressed up so fine, / Are lured out into the sweet sunshine. ... / They have something today to celebrate, / For the Lord’s resurrection is theirs as well: / Today they have risen and been set free / From the mean damp houses where they dwell, / From their trades and crafts and drudgery ... / They have all risen into the light! Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough. It has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his ‘natural superiors’ and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous ‘cash payment.’ It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom—Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement, being in unceasing antagonism to that disposition to aim at something better than customary, which is called, according to circumstances, the spirit of liberty, or that of progress or improvement. The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people; and the spirit of liberty, in so far as it resists such attempts, may ally itself locally and temporarily with the opponents of improvement. Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the greatest pleasure in seducing each other’s wives. Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at the most, what the Communists might possible be reproached with, is that they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an openly legalized community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident that the abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition of the community of women springing from that system, i.e. of prostitution both public and private. Part I: Short Answer (30 points). There are two groups, A and B. Please answer one (1) from group A and two (2) from group B succinctly and accurately in 4 to 5 sentences. Include specifics and detail when possible. Group A 1 Is Caliban a savage? 2 According to Descartes, which is better, a building built by many people, or a building built by one man? Why? 3 What does Bacon mean when he says that “human understanding when it has adopted an opinion draws all things else to support and agree with it”? 4 What impels man to leave the state of nature according to Hobbes? Group B 1 How would Marx criticize the “invisible hand” theory? 2 How does Diderot link good citizenship and his project of the Encyclopedia? 3 Is Mephistopheles the Devil? 4 Compare the projects of Victor Frankenstein and Captain Walton. Part III: Long Essay. (40 points). Choose one (1) of the two (2) essay topics below. In writing your response, be sure to give specific examples where you can drawn from the passages we read in the course. Be sure to give yourself enough time to answer this question thoroughly. 1. One of the definitions for the word “progress” found in the dictionary is “‘a going forward, going on to further or higher stages, successive or continuous improvement.” Choose three of these 5 authors (Kant, Locke, Hobbes, Marx, Descartes) and discuss whether or not they believe in that notion of progress and how. 2. Among the many definitions of the word “power” found in the dictionary is this one: “possession of control, authority, or influence over others.” Choose three of these 5 authors and discuss the many facets of power that they write about (Shakespeare, Hobbes, Locke, Marx and Engels, Shelley). Part III: Short Essay (10 points) Pick any three (3) authors from the course and hypothesize how they would respond to the follow statement. Limit your total response to one page for all three authors. Forbes Magazine, a leading business magazine in the United States, has reported in September 2003 that America’s richest people have seen a 10 per cent increase in their net worth over the past year. In other words, the rich are getting richer.