Below you will find eight questions. They constitute your mid-term evaluation. You are being asked to complete
twoshort 1000-1250-word essays - you may choose any
twoof the eight questions.The essays assume that you have read the pertinent chapters the "free textbook" (notably 1, 9-12 & 15 as well as parts 1-4 and 7-11 of
Soft Science.Those who may have forgotten can find the "free textbook" at .The "textbooks" contain background information that may assist you to formulate your answers. Most of what you put into them, however, will depend on how well
youthink about the issues raised in the questions themselves.Each question is intended to encourage you to
thinkseriouslyabout a topic and to present an answer which reflects your own
thoughtfuland
informedview on the matter. Each question can be answered in what is known as a standard “five paragraph essay” format if that is your preference—though that kind of stricture is
nota requirement and you are at liberty to experiment as you see fit. As well, even if you do stick to the standard format (Introduction, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, Conclusion), I suspect that you may need more than a mere three "body" paragraphs to make your case).Anyway, you should present your argument in a logical, concise, coherent fashion, but more than that—I would like you to offer an opinion that expresses your own perspective because it
mattersto you—as a person, as an aspirant contributor to society, and as a responsible human being in the world as it is.
And remember again to choose only
two(but two different) questions from the following list and write one short essay on
eachof your choices.
- Read the opening section on “the sociological imagination,” consult the pertinent parts of the “free” textbook and explain how you would translate the personal experience ofoneof the following: poverty, racism, or misogyny into a social problem that could be solved to your benefit. What are the social determinants of the unhappiness people in that situation have and whatpracticalmeasures could be taken to deal with them?
- Read the section called “Education” in the ebook. Think about what it would mean to be a teacher in an Ontario college today. Then, with the examples provided in mind, explain whether the task of education is to train young people to be efficient consumers and compliant citizens in contemporary society and, if so, whether any of the teachers whose ideas are presented here in fact or in fiction would be able to fulfill those tasks to the satisfaction of either their students or the authorities whose responsibility it is to manage the schools.
- When we listen to people discussing major social, economic, and political issues today, they are often expressing a particular view of “human nature.” Read the section on “Human Nature” inSoft Scienceand in particular the accounts of encounters with aboriginal peoples presented by Melville and Mowat. Then briefly describe and explain whether aspects of their cultures couldrealisticallybe adopted and adapted to the benefit of contemporary society.
- Read the section “Comments” on capitalism and reflect on the importance of religion and technology in terms of the ways in which modern society organizes itself and the production and distribution of goods and services. Then, write discuss whether you think that Marx’s explanation of human unhappiness is more or less convincing thaneitherWeber’s (which emphasizes “religion”)orKroker’s (which emphasizes “technology.”
- Setting aside your own religious beliefs (if any) consider the treatment of religion in either or both of the standard texts and then discuss whether or not you think thateitherSafire and Dershowitz (with regard toThe Book of Job)orThiering (with regard to the Christian “gospels”) present a credible account of the “stories” that are told. Both tie the content of the narratives to stages in human cultural development and make the case that religious belief is a reflection of cultural evolution. Are these narrative persuasive asexplanationsfor why the stories have been so widely and so long believed?
- Read Part 9 on reproduction, sex, and gender as well as its counterparts in the "free" text, and construct an argument for or against the proposition that sexual morality, the structure of the “traditional family,” etc. werenecessarylimitations on human sexual activityas long aseconomic scarcity required that people attend to winning the necessities of life in order to survive and bend to what Freud called the “reality principle,” but that modern technology has made it possible to live well with neither poverty nor sexual repression and overcome the “primacy of repression” (Marcuse).
- Read the selections by Lawrence, Sartre, Fanon, and Le Carré in Section 11 ofS
oft Scienceand compare them to the proposition advanced by Goldschmidt concerning “affect hunger.” Then, construct an argument for or against the proposition thatpessimismconcerning the moral quality of “human nature” is more plausible than “optimism”—especially with regard tothisquestion, you may wish to include some reference to other parts of the ebook.
- Earlier this year, a 22-year-old baseball player named Fernando Tatis, Jr. signed a contract to play with the San Diego Padres of the National Baseball League. He will receive $340 million over the next 14 years. Outline the basic elements of an explanation for why such a lucrative deal has been offered using the method of “cultural materialism” as outlined in the “Introduction” toSoft Science.
textbook:
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/introsoc2ed/