Fall 2013 Final Exam Topics
FINAL EXAM GUIDELINES / MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT / POLI 232 / INSTRUCTOR: CATHERINE LU GENERAL GUIDELINES • It is very important that you consult the examination page at http://www.mcgill.ca/students/exams/ for any last minute announcements concerning your exam. • You must present a valid McGill ID card in order to write a final exam. • The schedule with room locations will be posted on Monday Dec. 2nd, 2013. • You will have three hours. • There are three parts to the exam. • The final exam is worth 30% of your final course grade. INSTRUCTIONS ON PART A Part A: Part A: Quotation identifications. For SIX of the following eight quotations, please identify the author and title of the text. In the exam booklet, please also remember to include the specific number of the quotation you are identifying (for example, A1, A3, A8, A4, A5). Part A is worth 30% of the final exam grade. Quotations in Part A can come from the following texts. (Quotations will be in modernized English, and knowledge of different editions/translations will not impair your ability to identify quotations.) • Hobbes, Leviathan • Locke, Second Treatise of Government • Mill, On Liberty • Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto • Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents Please note that this list identifying authors and texts will not appear on the exam itself, only the quotations. So, you will have to come up with these names of authors and texts yourselves. INSTRUCTIONS ON PART B Part B: Short answer questions. Please answer THREE of the following five questions. Each answer should be a maximum of three pages (double-spaced). You should use complete sentences in your answer, but do not need to follow an essay format. Part B is worth 30 percent of the final exam grade. Note: Using 3 pages maximum is appropriate for those with large handwriting. If your handwriting is medium-sized, then you may not need more than 2 pages for each question. Note: This section can ask questions from any of the required course readings and lecture material. Note: These short answer questions will not require you to argue for a thesis, only to explain (interpret or apply) an author’s argument or views on a specific topic. •
Sample question: What is the distinction between positive and negative liberty, according to Berlin?
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Part B Question that will appear on the final exam: What are the advantages of absolute monarchy over aristocracy and democracy as a form of government, according to Hobbes?
INSTRUCTIONS ON PART C Part C: Essay question. Please choose one question below and answer it in essay format. Part C is worth 40% of the final exam grade. Note: This section can ask questions from any of the required course readings and lecture material. Note: This question does require you to formulate a thesis and structure your answer as you would an essay. The question will require you to discuss at least two, and possibly three, thinkers. GENERAL TOPICS AND CONCEPTS TO STUDY FOR PARTS B AND C -
The state of nature and transition to civil society (Hobbes, Locke) Theory of property (Hobbes, Locke) Liberty, negative and positive (Mill, Berlin, Taylor) Role of bourgeois and proletarian classes in progress (Marx and Engels) Critique of wage labour (Marx and Engels) Utilitarianism and critiques of (Mill, Rawls) Equal respect, equality of opportunity, and equality of condition (Williams, Rawls) Sources and explanation of human discontent in civilization (Freud) Rawls’s theory of justice (Rawls) Feminist critiques of liberalism (Rawls, Okin, Pateman) Marxist critique of Rawls’s theory of justice (Rawls, Marx and Engels) Morality of patriotism and cosmopolitanism (MacIntyre, Nussbaum)
OTHER EXAM-WRITING TIPS Manage your time wisely. Spend no more than 30 minutes on Part A. Move on to Part B and spend no more than 20 minutes on each question (total 60 minutes) Move on to Part C and give yourself an hour. You will then have 30 minutes left, to go back to Part A, or read over your answers for Parts B and C.
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Sample question: What is the distinction between positive and negative liberty, according to Berlin?
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Part B Question that will appear on the final exam: What are the advantages of absolute monarchy over aristocracy and democracy as a form of government, according to Hobbes?
INSTRUCTIONS ON PART C Part C: Essay question. Please choose one question below and answer it in essay format. Part C is worth 40% of the final exam grade. Note: This section can ask questions from any of the required course readings and lecture material. Note: This question does require you to formulate a thesis and structure your answer as you would an essay. The question will require you to discuss at least two, and possibly three, thinkers. GENERAL TOPICS AND CONCEPTS TO STUDY FOR PARTS B AND C -
The state of nature and transition to civil society (Hobbes, Locke) Theory of property (Hobbes, Locke) Liberty, negative and positive (Mill, Berlin, Taylor) Role of bourgeois and proletarian classes in progress (Marx and Engels) Critique of wage labour (Marx and Engels) Utilitarianism and critiques of (Mill, Rawls) Equal respect, equality of opportunity, and equality of condition (Williams, Rawls) Sources and explanation of human discontent in civilization (Freud) Rawls’s theory of justice (Rawls) Feminist critiques of liberalism (Rawls, Okin, Pateman) Marxist critique of Rawls’s theory of justice (Rawls, Marx and Engels) Morality of patriotism and cosmopolitanism (MacIntyre, Nussbaum)
OTHER EXAM-WRITING TIPS Manage your time wisely. Spend no more than 30 minutes on Part A. Move on to Part B and spend no more than 20 minutes on each question (total 60 minutes) Move on to Part C and give yourself an hour. You will then have 30 minutes left, to go back to Part A, or read over your answers for Parts B and C.
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