Deck 2: Karl Marx

Question 1

For Marx, which of the following is a catalyst for social change and the prime mover of history?

A)forces of production
B)bourgeoisie
C)alienation
D)class struggle

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is Marx referring to when he writes "The universality of its property is the omnipotence of its being"?

A)power
B)money
C)authority
D)alienation

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Raw materials, machinery for production or even more generally money, in Marx's economic framework, are all considered

A)commodities
B)goods
C)capital
D)surplus

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to Marx's materialist conception of history, ideas or consciousness is determined by

A)the fetishism of commodities
B)forms of legitimate authority
C)the forces and relations of production; what individuals produce and how they produce it
D)the conceptual categories through which we order experience

Question 5

Marx argues that fetishizing commodities

A)creates the conditions necessary for developing class consciousness and thus sparking the communist revolution
B)leads us to attribute magical, personally transforming properties to the goods we buy
C)leads workers to endow machines with human qualities and assign the source of their exploitation to technology and the production of commodities
D)increases the surplus value produced during the production process

Question 6

What will become a fetter to the continued development of the means of production?

A)class struggle
B)ownership of production
C)social relations of production
D)class consciousness

Question 7

What term does Marx use to refer to when the process of production and the results of our labor confront us as a dominating power?

A)class struggle
B)forces of production
C)alienation
D)proletariat

Question 8

According to the authors, Karl Marx's basic theoretical orientation would fall under the category of:

A)nonrational, collective
B)nonrational, individual
C)rational, individual
D)rational, collective

Question 9

Marx refers to the middle-class owners of capital as

A)prolétariat.
B)bourgeoisie.
C)verstehen.
D)veblen.

Question 10

Which of the following is a "class" in capitalism according to Marx?

A)Protestants
B)wage laborers
C)villagers
D)Communism

Question 11

According to Marx, the standard on which the value of commodities is based is

A)the degree of usefulness of the commodity
B)the amount of labor time necessary to produce the commodity
C)the level of exploitation experienced by the worker
D)the exchange of private property necessary for actualizing an exchange

Question 12

Whose theory is Marx inverting when he states "Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life"?

A)Antonio Gramsci
B)Friedrich Engels
C)Georg W.F.Hegel
D)Thorstein Veblen

Question 13

Marx refers to propertyless wage earners as

A)proletariat
B)bourgeoisie
C)verstehen
D)veblen

Question 14

Marx used the term class consciousness to refer to:

A)an awareness on the part of the working class of their common relationship to the means of production
B)the alienation of the working class
C)the false ideology of the working class
D)the sense of entitlement of the middle class

Question 15

Marx states the capitalist class will produce its own "grave-diggers". For Marx, who are these "diggers"?

A)the bourgeoisie
B)new capitalists
C)class-conscious proletariat
D)owners of capital

Question 16

The cycle of exchange for the typical wage earner as outlined by Marx resembles which pattern?

A)M-C-M
B)M-C-M-C
C)C-M-C
D)C-M-C-M

Question 17

Which classical sociological theorist wrote The Origin of Family, Private Property, and the State?

A)Karl Marx
B)Emile Durkheim
C)Friedrich Engels
D)Max Weber

Question 18

Classes are groups of individuals who share a common position in relation to

A)their religious affiliation
B)how they interpret the world
C)the forces of production
D)how they consume products

Question 19

Marx defined surplus value as

A)difference between the number of workers and the number of products produced
B)difference between what workers earn for their labor and the price or value of the goods they produce
C)difference between the number of workers and the number of consumers in the same market
D)the difference between what the workers earn across competing companies in the same market

Question 20

The Origin of Family, Private Property, and the State has which of the following as a foundation for its conception of history?

A)Hegelianism
B)Materialism
C)Interactionism
D)Economism

Question 21

Marx believed that capitalism was morally a good system; but that economically, it was doomed to fail.

Question 22

In The Origin of Family, Private Property, and the State, what term is used to refer to the period of communally organized hunting and gathering societies?

A)stage of barbarism
B)mechanical solidarity
C)state of savagery
D)organic solidarity

Question 23

Engels is credited with The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State because at the time Marx was in hiding due to his exile.

Question 24

It will be the proletariat who "chokes" on the overabundance of goods produced by ever increasing industrial efficiency.

Question 25

What role does private property play in Marx's discussion of the inevitable communist revolution?

Question 26

Barbarism is marked by the domestication and breeding of animals for food, the development of irrigation techniques for the cultivation of crops, and iron plows for tilling large fields.

Question 27

The superstructure consists of everything non-economic such as legal, political, and educational systems.

Question 28

What role does class consciousness play according to Marx in the evolution of society?

Question 29

Marx believed that capitalism was a necessary stage in the transition toward socialism/communism.

Question 30

The two factors of a commodity according to Marx are its use and surplus values.

Question 31

As discussed by the authors, Marx's basic theoretical orientation could be said to be individualist and nonrational.

Question 32

From Marx's perspective, the "grave-diggers" are a class conscious proletariat.

Question 33

Many anthropologists and historians believe Engels's ethnographically and historically accurate portrayal of the premodern family is the real strength behind The Origin of the Family.

Question 34

One of the most important changes effecting gender relations according to The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State is the overturning of "mother-right" lines of descent.

Question 35

Which form of family resulted in a new division of labor wherein the man received exclusive ownership of the means of production?

A)pairing family
B)polygyny
C)group marriage
D)polygamy

Question 36

Capitalists derive their profit from the surplus value workers earn for them.

Question 37

Marx's arguments stems from his agreement with Hegel on the real basis of the progression of human societies.

Question 38

According to The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State, monogamous marriage provided women with the freedom, honor, and respect lacking during the "backward" period of barbarism.

Question 39

The dominant economic class controls only a society's means of material production.

Question 40

According to Engels, which of the following ultimately became the decisive center of power in a civilized society?

A)bourgeoisie
B)the state
C)proletariat
D)the family

Question 41

When most people discuss Marx in the everyday, in what context is his work discussed? Is the common understanding of Marx's work, correct. Be specific.

Question 42

What does Marx mean when he writes "…money is thus the object of eminent possession"?

Question 43

According to Marx's materialist conception of history, what is the relationship between property and ideas or consciousness?

Question 44

Explain the following types of estrangement under capitalism as outlined by Marx, using concrete examples: man from man-from one another by class. man from nature-from the natural resources that one depends on for production of goods. man from self- from what one makes and from what one is.

Question 45

Explain in detail Marx's general formula for capital. In your explanation define and relate the connection commodities and surplus value have to the general formula.

Question 46

Explain Marx's line "a commodity is therefore a mysterious thing simply because in it the social character of men's labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour…"

Question 47

Summarize the main points of Engels's The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. What weaknesses are present in this theory? What are the strengths of this theory (that you feel are still valid today)?

Question 48

Explain the role "pairing families" and monogamy play in the subjugation of women in civilized society.

Question 49

Define Hegel's dialectical process. Explain its significance in relation to Marx's theory of history. Also explain its significance on Marx's basic theoretical orientation.

Question 50

Discuss Marx's concept "the fetishism of commodities" from Capital.

Question 51

Define Marx's concept of "species being." Discuss its significance in relation to his concept of alienation. Use specific quotes from the "Economic Manuscripts" for support.