Classical Sociological Theory Coursera Quiz Answers

Get All Weeks Classical Sociological Theory Coursera Quiz Answers

Classical Sociological Theory Week 01 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Classical Sociological Theory – An Introduction

Q1. Why are the precursors of modern social science still important? Their theories…

[expand title=View Answer] are still relevant today [/expand]

Q2. Why is it enlightening to make one’s own implicit theories explicit?

[expand title=View Answer] It enables one to make better explicit choices[/expand]

Q3. What is the main issue that classical sociologists were concerned with?

[expand title=View Answer] To understand the fundamental changes in modern societies [/expand]

Q4. What is ‘sociology’?

[expand title=View Answer] The science of human societies [/expand]

Q5. The liberal, socialist and conservatist strands within sociology:

[expand title=View Answer] do still influence sociological research to some extent [/expand]

Q6. To understand contemporary society:

[expand title=View Answer] it is useful to take into consideration classical sociological theories[/expand]

Q7. Why can classical sociological theory be important to contemporary social scientists?

[expand title=View Answer] It offers a common ground for sociological knowledge[/expand]

Q8. The most important objective of this course is:

[expand title=View Answer] to learn to read classical theoretical texts independently[/expand]

Q9. In their ‘General Introduction’, Calhoun and others (2013, pp. 1-18) show multiple reasons why sociological theory can be helpful for both social scientists and ‘lay-people.’

Which of the summaries below fits these reasons best?

[expand title=View Answer] Sociological theory provides a crucial basis for systematically explaining, exploring, understanding and analysing social life [/expand]

Q10. Whereas sociology embraces the Enlightened message of reason and reliance on empirical evidence, Calhoun and others (2013, pp. 21-29) argue that most sociologists question some of Enlightenment’s basic assumptions.

What basic assumptions do they question?

[expand title=View Answer] Social scientists question the idea of inevitable human progress [/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 02 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) and Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Q1. In his work, The Fable of the Bees, Bernard Mandeville poses the idea of ‘private vices, public benefits’. What does he mean by that?

[expand title=View Answer]Society needs private vices and sins in order to flourish economically[/expand]

Q2. What does Adam Smith mean by ‘The Invisible Hand’?

[expand title=View Answer] If society flourishes it is because of the self-interested acts of individuals [/expand]

Q3. What was the most important effect of the Division of Labour?

[expand title=View Answer] Labour productivity increased [/expand]

Q4. What was the most important outcome of the rise of productivity?

[expand title=View Answer] Wealth trickled down to the lowest ranks of people[/expand]

Q5. What premise about human nature underlies the theories of Adam Smith?

[expand title=View Answer]Human beings cannot survive in isolation, they are interdependent [/expand]

Q6. How can social stratification be explained, according to Adam Smith?

[expand title=View Answer] Different social positions account for the development of different talents [/expand]

Q7. Why can Smith be seen as a precursor of modern social sciences?

[expand title=View Answer] Smith makes a connection between social theory and empirical knowledge [/expand]

Q8. Which quote describes best Smith’s concept of ‘the division of labour’ (Smith 1776, cited by Calhoun et al. 2013, pp. 55-66)?

[expand title=View Answer] “But in the way in which this business is now carried on, not only the whole work is a peculiar trade, but it is divided into a number of branches, of which the greater part are likewise peculiar trades” (Ibid., p. 56)[/expand]

Alternative reading:

Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations,” pp. 3-16, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan (New York, Random House, 1937).

Q9. Which quote refers best to the main consequence of the division of labour, as described by Smith (Smith 1776, cited by Calhoun et al. 2013, pp 55-66)?

Alternative reading:

Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations,” pp. 3-16, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan (New York, Random House, 1937).

[expand title=View Answer] “The division of labour, however, so far as it can be introduced, occasions, in every art, a proportionable increase of the productive powers of labour”(Ibid., p. 56) [/expand]

Q10. Which quote relates directly to Smith’s concept of the ‘invisible hand’ (Smith 1776, cited by Calhoun et al. 2013, pp 55-66)?

Alternative reading:

Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations,” pp. 3-16, from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan (New York, Random House, 1937).

[expand title=View Answer] “By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it” (Ibid., p. 65)[/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 03 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Q1. What is the relationship between religious and scientific knowledge, according to Comte?

[expand title=View Answer]Religious thought stands opposite to scientific thought[/expand]

Q2. Why is The Law of the Three Stages of the Human Mind called an idealist theory?

[expand title=View Answer] It assumes that ideas transform human history [/expand]

Q3. What was Comte’s main motive to write his classical book ‘The Course on the Positive Philosophy’?

[expand title=View Answer] To create a scientifically founded system of ideas [/expand]

Q4. What is the connection between Comte’s ‘Law of the Three Stages of Human Mind’ and his ‘Hierarchical Classification of the Sciences’?

[expand title=View Answer] Sciences that rank lowest do reach the positivist stage quickly [/expand]

Q5. Why does Comte consider the theological stage important?

[expand title=View Answer] In that stage, religious human beings made the transition to secularism [/expand]

Q6. Why is religion indispensable in a ‘modern’ society, according to Comte?

[expand title=View Answer] Without religion modern, industrial societies are unstable [/expand]

Q7. Why can Comte be called a precursor of functionalism?

[expand title=View Answer] He paid attention to the function of smaller parts for society as a whole[/expand]

Q8. What distinguishes sociology from other sciences?

[expand title=View Answer] Sociology is a relative autonomous science, with its own methodology [/expand]

Q9. Comte’s term ‘sociology’ was preceded by his term ‘social physics’ (Ritzer & Stepnisky 2013, p. 15). What did Comte refer to with this latter term?

[expand title=View Answer] Comte sought to model sociology after the hard natural sciences [/expand]

Alternative reading:

Q10. How does Comte define his Law of the Three Stages of Human Mind (Comte 1830/2000, cited on http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/comte/Philosophy1.pdf

[expand title=View Answer] “[…][E]ach of our leading conceptions, each branch of knowledge, passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the Theological […]; the Metaphysical […]; and the Scientific […]” (Comte 1830/2000, p. 27)[/expand]

Q11. Comte outlines the two general aims of his work (Comte 1830/2000, pp. 27-42, cited on http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/comte/Philosophy1.pdf.

What aims are explicitly outlined in his work?

[expand title=View Answer]
1) To fill up the series of sciences of observation with Social Physics,
2) to show that all sciences are branches of the same trunk
[/expand]

Q12. Comte describes “four points of advantage” (Comte 1830/2000, pp. 40, cited on http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/comte/Philosophy1.pdf that come to the fore with the establishment of a Positive Philosophy.

What are these four points?

[expand title=View Answer]
The manifestation by the experiment of the laws which rule the intellect,
2) a general instruction based on the Positive Philosophy directed to regenerate education,
3) the progress of the respective positive sciences by their combination,
4) social reorganization by establishing an intellectual agreement
[/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 04 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Q1. Why is Tocqueville mainly considered a political scientist?

[expand title=View Answer] Because of his work on the phenomenon of democracy [/expand]

Q2. What makes Tocqueville’s perspective on democracy so unique within the social sciences?

[expand title=View Answer] His aristocratic background and worldview[/expand]

Q3. Why did Tocqueville consider a comparison between the US and France important?

[expand title=View Answer] The process of democratization in the USA provided insight in France’s future [/expand]

Q4. What can be distinguished as the main focus of Tocqueville’s work?

[expand title=View Answer] The process of equalisation[/expand]

Q5. What is the main pitfall of democratisation, according to Tocqueville?

[expand title=View Answer] In a democracy, minorities will not be protected against the majority [/expand]

Q6. What is the best antidote against the overwhelming power of the central state?

[expand title=View Answer] A free and independent press [/expand]

Q7. Why will revolutions become rare, according to Tocqueville?

[expand title=View Answer] When in a democracy the middle class becomes the majority, there will be no dominant class left to start a fight with[/expand]

Q8. Why can ‘wrong’ predictions, made by scholars such as Tocqueville, still be useful today?

[expand title=View Answer] It can teach us something about the context in which classical theorists worked and thought[/expand]

Q9. In the ‘Introduction to Part II’, Calhoun et al. (2013) outline why democracy faces a dilemma, according to Tocqueville. What is the dilemma of democracy?

[expand title=View Answer] Self-interest is a basic feature of democratic politics, but the spirit of individualism easily fosters egoism and selfish preferences that make management of common affairs difficult[/expand]

Q10. Similar to Smith, Tocqueville argues that:

[expand title=View Answer] It is through knowledge and education that societies become ‘enlightened’ and democratic [/expand]

Q11. Why does Tocqueville believe that literary genius will never exist in America?

[expand title=View Answer]In a democratic society, the majority raises barriers to the liberty of opinion, since the author will repent it if he steps beyond these barriers by the persecutions of daily obloquy [/expand]

Q12. What is Tocqueville’s greatest concern with regard to democracy (Tocqueville, 1840, cited by Calhoun et al. 2013, pp. 122-131)?

Alternative reading:

Chapter XV: Unlimited Power Of Majority, And Its Consequences—Part I and II, Alexis De Tocqueville (H, Reeve, trans) (2006), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm#link2H_INTR

[expand title=View Answer] In democratic legislation there is no barrier established against tyrannic abuses by the majority [/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 05 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Q1. What did Marx’s theories teach us about the force of social thought?

[expand title=View Answer] Social thought can inspire political leaders over many decades [/expand]

Q2. How are the concepts of infrastructure and superstructure interrelated, according to Marx?

[expand title=View Answer]The infrastructure forms the base for the superstructure[/expand]

Q3. Why is Marx often characterized as a materialist?

[expand title=View Answer] He stressed that economic ties determine the ideas of human beings[/expand]

Q4. Which four types of alienation can be distinguished?
Workers are alienated from:

[expand title=View Answer]
The production process,

Their fellow workers,

Themselves as human beings
[/expand]

Q5. How will the division between the classes develop when capitalism reaches its final stage?

[expand title=View Answer] Eventually, only two classes will remain: the poor proletariat and the wealthy bourgeoisie [/expand]

Q6. Why is the collapse of the capitalist system inevitable, according to Marx?

[expand title=View Answer] The extreme competition forces the bourgeoisie to increasingly exploit the proletariat. This shapes the conditions for an inescapable revolution [/expand]

Q7. What is the main critique of Marx’s theories?

[expand title=View Answer] His emphasis on economic aspects only, as the driving force of class struggle[/expand]

Q8. Why could Marx’s predictions still be valuable and legitimate today?

[expand title=View Answer] It is possible that the capitalist system stretched its lifetime by processes of globalization[/expand]

Q9. Karl Marx’s central argument is now known as ‘historical materialism’. In his work The German Ideology (in Calhoun et al, 2013, pp 142-145), Marx elaborates on the relationship between ideas and consciousness (superstructure), and materialist conditions (substructure). Which quote captures this relationship best?

Alternative reading:

[expand title=View Answer] “Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas, etc. – real, active men, as they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces and of the intercourse corresponding to these, up to its furthest forms” (Marx 1845, cited in Calhoun et al, 2013, p. 143) [/expand]

Q10. In Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 ( in Calhoun et al, 2013, pp. 146-155), Marx criticises private property. What is his main concern with regard to private property?

Alternative reading:

[expand title=View Answer]“Private property is the product, the result, the necessary consequence, of alienated labour, of the external relation of the worker to nature and to himself”(Marx 1844, cited by Calhoun et al., 2013, p. 153, italics added by author)[/expand]

Q11. In Manifesto of the Communist Party, Marx & Engels argue the following: “What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own gravediggers. Its fall and victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 165). Why is this fall inevitable, according to them?

Alternative reading:

[expand title=View Answer] “The essential combination for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their revolutionary combination, due to association.” (Marx & Engels 1848, cited by Calhoun et al., 2013, p. 164) [/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 06 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Q1. What is the societal importance of sociology, according to Durkheim?

[expand title=View Answer] To understand and solve problems that are typical of modernity [/expand]

Q2. Why did Durkheim think that modern societies would not fall apart, while at the same time becoming increasingly differentiated?

[expand title=View Answer] A new kind of interdependency arises out of heterogeneity: organic solidarity[/expand]

Q3. Why did Durkheim compare social sciences to biology?

[expand title=View Answer] Unlike biology, sociology is concerned with social facts rather than natural or biological facts [/expand]

Q4. What did Durkheim try to establish with his quantitative study on suicide?

[expand title=View Answer] He attempted to show that such an individual event as suicide can be explained sociologically [/expand]

Q5. What did Durkheim mean by ‘egoistic suicide’?

[expand title=View Answer]This type of suicide is the result of weak social ties and a lack of social cohesion [/expand]

Q6. Why is social regulation indispensable according to Durkheim?

[expand title=View Answer]Without regulation, human beings are not able to harmonise their desires [/expand]

Q7. What is the omnipresent power that people do experience in a religious gathering, according to Durkheim?

[expand title=View Answer] The coercive and external power of society [/expand]

Q8. What are the most important functions of religion, according to Durkheim?

[expand title=View Answer] It strengthens social cohesion, social regulation and repairs social ties[/expand]

Q9. In The Rules of Sociological Method (in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 201-219), Durkheim argues that a ‘social fact’ is always external to the individual. Why?

Alternative reading:

The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) (http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/)

[expand title=View Answer] Social institutions in a society exist before human beings are born, and will remain after their deaths. These laws and customs are thus external to human beings and their actions, but are nevertheless compelling and coercive with regard to their ways of acting, thinking and feeling [/expand]

Q10. In The Division of Labour in Society (in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 220-242), Durkheim defines the term ‘collective consciousness’. Which quote denotes this definition?

Alternative reading:

The Division of Labor in Society (1893) (http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/)

[expand title=View Answer] “It remains an intangible virtuality too elusive to observe. To take on a form that we can grasp, social outcomes must provide an external interpretation of it” (in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 223) [/expand]

Q11. In his work Suicide (in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 255-264), Durkheim states that human beings, in contrast to ‘other’ animals, need social regulation to be happy. Why?

Alternative reading:

Suicide (1897) (http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/)

[expand title=View Answer] “Yet human nature is substantially the same among all men, in its essential qualities. It is not human nature which can assign the variable limits necessary to our needs. They are thus unlimited so far as they depend on the individual alone. Irrespective of any external regulatory force, our capacity for feeling is in itself an insatiable and bottomless abyss” (Durkheim, 1897, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 256) [/expand]

Q12. What does religion express, according to Durkheim (Durkheim, 1912, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 243-253)?

Alternative reading:

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) (http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/)

[expand title=View Answer] Religion expresses the collective ideal of a society that the individual has learned to internalise[/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 07 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Max Weber (1864-1920)

Q1. Weberian value-free research means that:

[expand title=View Answer] In scientific research, we should keep our values at bay [/expand]

Q2. According to Weber, sociology is the study of:

[expand title=View Answer] Social action [/expand]

Q3. What is an ‘Ideal Type’?

[expand title=View Answer] A coherent model to analyse reality[/expand]

Q4. What is the main difference between the methodological approach of Durkheim and Weber?

[expand title=View Answer] Weber’s work is value-free, Durkheim’s work is not [/expand]

Q5. Weber states that goal-rational social action increasingly pushes aside the other types of social action. What does this imply about individuals in modern Western societies?

[expand title=View Answer] Individuals attain their goals in an increasingly emotionally detached and calculating way [/expand]

Q6. Why will charismatic authority become rare in modern Western societies?

[expand title=View Answer] Charismatic authority depends on effects and emotions. These latter will decline due to increasing goal-rational oriented behaviour of individuals. [/expand]

Q7. With regard to bureaucratisation, what is Weber especially ambiguous about?

[expand title=View Answer]Bureaucratisation offers great opportunities for mankind, but at the same time suppresses all-to-human emotions and spontaneity [/expand]

Q8. Why can the Weberian theses of The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism be seen as a critique on the materialist assumptions of Marx?

[expand title=View Answer] According to Weber, ideas and convictions can form the base of economic endeavour, and not solely the other way round as Marx claims[/expand]

Q9. Max Weber argues that an ‘ideal type’ is a utopia. Why?

[expand title=View Answer] An ideal type is a mental construct that cannot be found anywhere in reality [/expand]

Q10. In contrast to Durkheim’s methodological emphasis on ‘social facts’, Weber’s work can be characterised by ‘methodological individualism’. Which quote from Basic Sociological Terms (Weber 1914, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 280-290) illustrates this distinction between Weber’s and Durkheim’s methodological approach?

Alternative reading:

The Definition of Sociology, 1897 (https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/weber.htm)

[expand title=View Answer] “In the case of social collectivities, precisely as distinguished from organisms, we are in a position to go beyond merely demonstrating functional relationships and uniformities. We can accomplish something which is never attainable in the natural sciences, namely the subjective understanding of the action of the component individuals” (Weber 1914, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 285)[/expand]

Q11. Which quote in The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1930, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 291-309) reveals most the ‘idealist’ approach of Max Weber, in contrast to the ‘materialist’ approach of Karl Marx?

Alternative reading:

The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism, 1905 (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/weber/protestant-ethic/index.htm)

[expand title=View Answer] “To speak here of the ‘reflection’ of ‘material’ conditions in the ‘ideal superstructure’ would be complete nonsense. Hence, our question: What set of ideas gave birth to the ordering of activity-oriented purely to profit under the category of a ‘calling,’ to which the person felt an obligation?” (Weber, 1930, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 303, italics by author) [/expand]

Q12. In The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism (Weber, 1930, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 308), Max Weber describes modern capitalism as a ‘steel-hard casing.’ Which quote from his work Bureaucracy illustrates this steel-hard casing best?

Alternative reading:

The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism, 1905 (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/weber/protestant-ethic/index.htm)

[expand title=View Answer]“Bureaucracy develops the more perfectly, the more it is “dehumanised,” the more completely it succeeds in eliminating from official business love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational, and emotion elements which escape calculation. This is appraised as its special virtue by capitalism” (Weber, 1922, in Calhoun et al., 2013, pp. 334) [/expand]

Classical Sociological Theory Week 08 Quiz Answers

Quiz 1: Norbert Elias (1897-1990)

Q1. Why should Norbert Elias be considered a classical sociologist, rather than a modern scholar?

[expand title=View Answer] Elias developed his theories in the same era as, and in debate with classical sociologists [/expand]

Q2. What has the ‘loneliness of the dying’ to do with ‘civilisation’, according to Elias?

[expand title=View Answer] The ways in which people treat the dying reveal the incorporated feelings of shame that have emerged in the process of civilisation [/expand]

Q3. What is the key transformation that human beings make in the civilising process?

[expand title=View Answer] They learn to manage and organise their emotional impulses more, in accordance with the social context [/expand]

Q4. Why do citizens become less violent within a ‘civilised’ society, according to Elias?

[expand title=View Answer] Citizens have internalised the external force of the state’s monopoly on the means of violence. [/expand]

Q5. What does Elias mean by stating that “the ‘circumstances’ are the relationships between people themselves”?

[expand title=View Answer] Circumstances cannot be seen as existing outside figurations of people, they are the relationships among people [/expand]

Q6. Why are processes of civilisation and de-civilisation closely connected?

[expand title=View Answer] Wild emotions and violent impulses have not disappeared completely, they can be reinforced during social upheaval[/expand]

Q7. What is the main methodological difference between the work of Durkheim, Weber and Elias?

[expand title=View Answer] Durkheim focuses mainly on social structures, Weber on individuals, while Elias focuses on the interplay between structures and individuals [/expand]

Q8. What is the main difference between classic sociology and sociology after World War II?

[expand title=View Answer] Classic sociology was concerned with long-term processes, while sociology after WWII primarily focused on the present [/expand]

Q9. What is the connection between the two texts of Norbert Elias that are recommended for this week?

Norbert Elias (1978) ‘On Transformations of Aggressiveness’, in: Theory and Society, 5, pp. 229-242. http://www.scribd.com/doc/125467372/Elias-On-Transformations-of-Aggressiveness-pdf

Chapter 33, Norbert Elias, The Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint, in Calhoun et al. (2012), pp. 499 -509

Alternative reading:

[expand title=View Answer] In the first text, ‘On Transformations of Aggressiveness’, Elias presents his empirical data in an historical comparison, upon which he successively builds his theory on the Civilising Process, as partly described in the second text, ‘The Social Constraint towards Self-Constraint.’ [/expand]

Q10. Which quote explains best the conditions for the development of self-constraint?

Alternative reading:

[expand title=View Answer] “The closer the web of interdependence becomes in which the individual is enmeshed […] – the more threatened is the social existence of the individual who gives way to spontaneous impulses and emotions […]” (Elias 1937, in Calhoun et al. (2012), pp. 503)[/expand]

Q11. Which concept is adopted by Elias to describe the characteristics of the Civilising Process?

[expand title=View Answer] The concept of ‘Sui Generis’, as used by Emíle Durkheim[/expand]