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

Marx refers to the middle-class owners of capital as

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

Answer 2

B

Question 3

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

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

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 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

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 8

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 9

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

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

Question 10

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 11

Marx refers to propertyless wage earners as

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

Question 12

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 13

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 14

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 15

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 16

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

Question 17

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

Question 18

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 19

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 20

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 21

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

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

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 24

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 25

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

Question 28

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 29

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

Question 30

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 31

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

Question 32

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 33

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 34

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

Question 35

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

Question 36

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 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

Question 41

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 42

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

Question 43

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 44

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.

Question 45

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 46

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

Question 47

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

Question 48

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

Question 49

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 50

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 51

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