C&T Final Exam

Thursday, May 8, 1997

Answer all three parts of the exam in the bluebooks. Number the parts you answer.

PART 1: Paired IDs

Answer 5 out of 9,;40 points, just under an hour

Briefly identify both parts of each pair (who, what, when, where) and write a paragraph about a connection between the two parts. The connection is up to you. It can be comparison, contrast, thematic - be creative, but support the connection you draw.

 1. "What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated." AND

  • "For years, the things to which I was most inclined had been condemned as evils of the West: pretty clothes, flowers, books... love instead of "class hatred," respect for human lives, the desire to be left alone, professional competence."

     

     2. Lt. Shinji Takeyama AND Muthoni

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    3. "What we demand is the unity of politics and art, the unity of content and form, the unity of revolutionary political content and the highest possible perfection of artistic form. [... ] All our literature and art are for the masses of the people..." AND

     

    4. Dr. Pangloss AND Malcolm X

     

    5. "One should not reify "cause" and "effect" as the natural scientists do (and whoever, like them, now naturalizes in his thinking), according to the prevailing mechanistic doltishness which makes the causes press and push until it "effects" its end; one should use "cause" and "effect" only as pure concepts, that is to say, as conventional fictions for the purposes of designations and communication--not for explanation." AND

  • "The very act of attempting to establish determinism produces indeterminism. There is no randomness like quantum randomness. Like us, God plays dice--He, too, knows only the odds."

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     6. Nyambura AND John Jones' sister, Jenny

     

  • 7. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any accurate record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant." AND

    "As I began collecting biographies I found repeatedly that the Communist would be able to tell everything that had happened in his early youth, but once he had become identified with the Red Army, he lost himself somewhere, and without repeated questioning, one could hear nothing more about HIM, but only stories of the Army, or the Soviets, or the Party - capitalized."

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  • 8. "We are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death. [...] [Aldous Huxley] was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking." AND

    "Under a dictatorship like Mao's, where information was withheld and fabricated, it was very difficult for ordinary people to have confidence in their own experience or knowledge. People had learned to defy reason and to live with acting. The whole nation slid into doublespeak. Words became divorced from reality, responsibility, and people's real thoughts. Lies were told with case because words had lost their meanings-- and had ceased to be taken seriously by others."

      

    9. "What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some advantage." AND

    "If all laboured for their bread and no more, then there would be enough food and enough leisure for all. Then there would be no cry of overpopulation, no disease and no such misery as we see around. Such labour will be the highest form of sacrifice."

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    PART II: Synthetic Essay

    Answer I out of 3; 40 points, just over an hour

    An essay based on Goal #3 on A-3 of the Readings Book:

    To encounter through the great creative works of past ages the timeless conflicts of human experience. We shall become acquainted with people who molded and defined their culture and with some who ... rebelled......

    In answering one of these questions you should have a thesis and make use of a wide range of the readings of the semester. You should be able to demonstrate familiarity with the major ideas and conceptual frameworks of some selection of the major thinkers of the semester's readings. Use concrete details from the readings, lectures, discussions and films to illustrate your ideas.

     

     1. Describe the change in Mao through the characters in Wild Swans from the Mao of Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China to the Mao of the Cultural Revolution.

     

    2. In the video "Eyes on the Prize," a young Black activist, shortly after the assassination of Malcolm X, observed, "He was a great teacher. And there is no greater loss to a society than the loss of a great teacher. " Teaching, of course, can be understood in the usual academic sense, but viewed more broadly it may involve great leadership In times of change and crisis. Using the C&T readings, explain and evaluate the teachings of at least four of the leaders studied during the second semester. Which were most effective? Which least? Which would you most like to study under and why?

     

     3. Describe a conversation (and its outcome) between Paul from All Quiet on the Western Front, Jimmy Cross from Tim O'Brien's The Carried, Daru (the schoolmaster) from Camus' The Guest, and Malcolm X on the effects of the wars of society on its warriors (voluntary or not). What does violence and conflict bring out in people in terms of the decisions they make and the consequences they must confront?

     

     

    PART III: Engagement Essay

    Answer I out of 3; 30 points, just under an hour

    An essay based on Goal #4 on A-3 of the Readings Book:

  • "To strive towards self-knowledge by examining and perhaps modifying our own values and beliefs."

    • In answering one of these questions you should give some account, based on reference to specific readings, of what you have taken out of this semester of C&T. Be specific in telling which particular readings, lectures, discussions, films, etc., were most influential in shaping the reflection detailed in your answer.

      

    1. Nietzsche, a voice of modernism, calls us "to recognize untruth as a condition of life," a philosophy that would be "beyond good and evil." His term "untruth" rejects blind faith in time-honored traditions and social conventions, yet he also (perhaps perversely) suggests that "untruths" are one of the very conditions that make life possible. Can people live without "tradition"? Drawing from a variety of texts, develop an argument in which you show how the modern world has responded to Nietzsche's claim that traditions are not true and yet somehow are necessary.

     

     

     2. In All quiet on the Western Front, the character Paul Baumer thinks,

    "I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another And all men of my age, here and over there, throughout the whole world see these things; all my generation is experiencing these things with me. [...] What would our fathers do if we suddenly stood up and came before them and proffered our account? And what shall come out of us?"

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    • When you survey the 20th century, do you see more good than bad or more bad than good? How did the readings encourage you to make such a determinations Now that this century is coming to a close, are you, on balance, proud or ashamed of this century? Moreover, do you think there is reason to believe that the next century will be any better? Discuss these questions using at least 4 different readings or visuals from the semester.

     

      

    3. Think back on how Lt. Shinji Takeyama, Gandhi, Jung Chang's mother,WEB Dubois, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Voltaire, Jefferson, Newton and other political, philosophical, and cultural leaders that we have studied in C&T, engaged their society and impacted their generation. What do you think were the most significant motivations for their involvement? What lessons did you learn first about the possibilities individuals have for engagement and, second, about the obligations individuals have for making a positive impact on the world around them?

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