Deck 27: The Twentieth-Century Mind: Western Science and the World

Question 1

According to the work of anthropologist Franz Boas,

A) no race was superior to any other in brainpower.
B) some peoples and societies were further evolved and thus superior.
C) people think differently in different cultures because they possess superior mental equipment.
D) cultural relativism is wrong.

Answer 1

no race was superior to any other in brainpower.

Question 2

Freud's Oedipus Complex refers to his belief that

A) all male children wish to supplant their fathers.
B) all children desire to take their parents' places.
C) everyone is conscious of his motivations.
D) not every child experiences the same phases of development.

Answer 2

all male children wish to supplant their fathers.

Question 3

The new science of genetics has led to all of the following EXCEPT:

A) a clearer understanding of the building blocks of life.
B) the creation of drought- and disease-resistant species of plants.
C) the ability to intervene in the evolutionary process.
D) an agreement about the ethics of cloning.

Answer 3

an agreement about the ethics of cloning.

Question 4

The study of Western medicine was relatively slow to take hold in China because

A) ancient Chinese methods continued to be thought superior.
B) Westerners did not think the Chinese capable of appreciating Western practices.
C) only after the revolution was there an interest in developing a Western-style curriculum for medicine.
D) outside of an interest in weapons technology, there was no interest in Western science.

Question 5

In 1925,an American court in Tennessee decided that a school board could

A) not ban the theory of evolution because it was based on scientific knowledge.
B) not ban the evolutionary theory because it was incompatible with the Bible, on the grounds that church and state are separate.
C) ban the theory of evolution only if Biblical creation was not allowed to be taught also.
D) ban the theory of evolution because it was incompatible with the Bible.

Question 6

An outgrowth of the development of psychiatry and its popularity in the West was increased

A) interest in Eastern philosophies.
B) feelings of shame about sex.
C) introspection.
D) recognition that mental disorders were really chemical disorders in the brain.

Question 7

The term "quantum mechanics" refers to the study of

A) cosmology.
B) all theoretical physics.
C) sub-atomic particles.
D) astronomy.

Question 8

In order to make his patients aware of repressed feelings or ease their nerves,Sigmund Freud employed all of the following techniques EXCEPT:

A) hypnosis.
B) meditation.
C) free association.
D) psychoanalysis.

Question 9

The transfer of Western scientific knowledge to the people of sub-Saharan Africa was impeded by

A) a failure by the colonial powers to train Africans.
B) a lack of the building of research centers.
C) the failure of indigenous communities to take an interest.
D) too little funding for scientific ventures in Africa.

Question 10

One of the most profound influences of psychology during the twentieth century was the recognition that children

A) benefit from being given challenging tasks.
B) are different from adults and needed protection from handling tasks beyond their age.
C) develop at rates that differ dramatically from individual to individual.
D) are capable of learning foreign languages and other difficult subjects best at a young age.

Question 11

As a result of having read Ernest Rutherford's work,the artist Vasily Kandinsky was influenced to paint

A) abstract art, suppressing every reminder of real objects.
B) art that emphasized forceful lines with an appeal to strength and order.
C) cubist art that showed images as though through a shivered mirror.
D) realist art that idealized work and industry.

Question 12

Put the following late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century inventions into correct sequence:

A) machine gun, wireless radio, automobile, and flight
B) telephone, flight, wireless radio, and electric light
C) typewriter, plastic, flight, and the telephone
D) automobile, wireless radio, flight, and plastic

Question 13

"Futurist" art represented a movement that

A) was particularly concerned with looking back to prehistoric art for examples.
B) repudiated conventional ideas and morals.
C) was concerned more with color and texture than with form.
D) tried to deliberately represent the universe as Einstein portrayed it.

Question 14

Einstein's work was revolutionary because he suggested that

A) the apparent effects of motion on speed were illusions.
B) the speed of light is predictable, as are the effects of motion.
C) time is constant regardless of speed.
D) the laws of nature reveal a clear orderliness that is evident by experimentation.

Question 15

The reaction of Pope John XXIII to the "Big Bang" theory and scientific evidence of an expanding universe was

A) to deny that it proved anything.
B) to see it as evidence of divine creation.
C) to declare the work heresy and to accept only a literal understanding of Genesis.
D) to argue that it was merely an attempt to remove God from our understanding of the universe.

Question 16

At the beginning of the twentieth century,British policy in India towards science and scientific education aimed

A) to discourage Indians from pursuing science.
B) to invest heavily in scientific education.
C) at only benefiting British companies.
D) at allowing Indians of high caste entry into Western education.

Question 17

The "New Culture" movement that developed after the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty saw science as

A) a means to develop industry and create a middle class.
B) in harmony with Confucian teachings and emphasis on education.
C) a necessary part of creating new ideas and a democratic system for China.
D) a way to modernize and save the country from the West and Japan.

Question 18

The focus of Margaret Mead's work in Samoa during the 1920s was

A) the coming-of-age rituals of boys in a competitive warrior society.
B) the role of harsh discipline in the raising of Samoan children.
C) young girls growing up in a sexually permissive society.
D) the unfortunate consequences of teenage pregnancy for Samoan girls.

Question 19

The main obstacle to the development of Western science in the Middle East came from

A) a lack of contact with European imperial powers.
B) religious objections.
C) a lack of interest from Muslim intellectuals.
D) the failure of the Ottoman Empire.

Question 20

The first Nobel Prize won by a non-Westerner in the sciences was

A) Prafulla Chandra Ray for chemistry.
B) Jagadis Chandra Bose for physics.
C) Curzon Dax for chemistry.
D) Chandrasekhra Venkata Raman for physics.

Question 21

According to a Dadaist artist,"the great work of destruction" was

A) the Great Depression.
B) World War I.
C) Hollywood cinema.
D) World War II.

Question 22

What conflicts and accommodations have arisen in the relationship between science and religion as human sciences have advanced?

Question 23

What was the effect of new discoveries in physics on the way we understand the universe?

Question 24

How did new developments in biology and genetics affect our understanding of what it means to be human and our understanding of our connection to the world around us?

Question 25

Noam Chomsky's work was revolutionary because he argues that

A) differences between languages are so profound that they help to prove evolutionary theory.
B) structures of language are something clearly created as a part of experience and heredity.
C) the belief held by educational psychologists that children cannot learn foreign languages easily is correct.
D) language is a part of our nature that is hard-wired and instinctive.

Question 26

In Mexico and China,large-scale rebellions against the ruling elites were launched by

A) peasants and under-employed intellectuals.
B) working-class laborers.
C) the military.
D) intellectuals and urban workers.

Question 27

William Golding's Lord of the Flies is often considered an allegory of the

A) failure of science and civilization.
B) belief that knowledge will make you wise.
C) success of science and civilization.
D) faith that human nature is basically good.

Question 28

One reason that art may have lost influence over the course of the twentieth century is because

A) artists became wealthy for their work, something that had never happened before.
B) art became too popular and lost its individual quality.
C) the adoption of foreign influences by too many artists alienated large segments of the population.
D) propaganda seduced art.

Question 29

By the late twentieth century,traditional medicinal practices in India and China were

A) becoming increasingly popular in the West.
B) were only of interest to indigenous peoples.
C) had virtually disappeared as a result of Western medicine.
D) were of interest in the West primarily to anthropologists.

Question 30

Artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were influenced by anthropological study mainly through

A) the work of Margaret Mead.
B) Franz Boas's lectures and teaching.
C) their personal travels among peoples in the Americas.
D) work by indigenous peoples in Africa and the Pacific.

Question 31

Valid experiments in quantum mechanics produce reliable observations that

A) may be repeated under certain special conditions.
B) can always be repeated; otherwise, they would not be valid.
C) can sometimes be repeated.
D) cannot be repeated.

Question 32

Many of Henri Bergson's followers were made hopeful by his writings because he argued that

A) truth is not what is real but is whatever serves a particular purpose.
B) we should accept our existence as the only unchangeable thing.
C) we retain the freedom to make a future different from the one predicted by scientists.
D) God does not exist, and everything is permissible.

Question 33

Functionalist architecture was popular during the 1950s and 1960s because it

A) could be built quickly and relatively inexpensively.
B) created friendly and inviting spaces for people to work.
C) could easily be incorporated into older classical buildings.
D) favored small buildings that traditional and conservative.

Question 34

How has the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud and other psychologists reshaped the understanding of the human psyche?

Question 35

How have anthropological studies helped to reshape our understanding of other human societies and our own?

Question 36

Where did Western medicine and science run into resistance or spread less successfully? What accounted for these failures?

Question 37

What role did medicine play in the spread of Western science?

Question 38

One of the primary reasons that increasing numbers of Westerners turned to Eastern philosophies during the last half of the twentieth century was

A) the success of anthropologists in popularizing them.
B) a feeling that Western science and philosophy had failed.
C) a strong interest on the part of Hollywood and the popular media in telling Eastern stories.
D) the popularity of certain Eastern philosophies among rock bands during the 1960s.

Question 39

How and why did Western science become so popular?

Question 40

When Niels Bohr decided to incorporate a Daoist symbol into his coat of arms,he wanted to illustrate that

A) opposites are complementary.
B) nothing is everything.
C) it is impossible to comprehend even the smallest things.
D) matter is constantly in a competitive opposition.

Question 41

What accounts for the rising popularity of Eastern philosophies during the last half of the twentieth century?

Question 42

Write an essay that explores how rapid change and new developments in twentieth-century industry and technology led twentieth century political thinkers and artists to imagine the future of society.

Question 43

Explain how Western ideas about science and technology came to dominate in regions such as India and China,where alternate traditions including philosophy,medicine,and religions had an equally rich history of explaining natural law.

Question 44

How did the definition of what counted as "art" change with technological and cultural developments in the twentieth century?

Question 45

What effect did developments in psychology and anthropology have on art?

Question 46

Why did a reaction against Western science take hold in the second half of the twentieth century?

Question 47

How was the art world affected by the new ideas and discoveries of science?

Question 48

What is cultural relativism,and how has it influenced and been influenced by studies in anthropology and psychology?

Question 49

How did the transformation of Western science affect art and the human sciences?

Question 50

How was Western science transformed during the twentieth century?

Question 51

Compare the role of philosophy today with the role it played in the axial age.Has the usefulness of philosophy changed since 500 B.C.E?
In Perspective

Question 52

What were the major developments in Western philosophy,and how did philosophy and linguistics intersect during the twentieth century?