Midterm Review Sheet: Social Theory

Terms and concepts to know:

alienation // altruistic suicide // Andaman Islands // anomic suicide // anomie // armchair anthropology // biological functionalism // capitalism // class conflict // class struggle // collective conscious // colonialism // communism // complexification // conjectural history // crime // critical periods // cultural change // cultural rules // culture //

deviance // diachronic // dialectic // diffusionism // disciplinary function // distinctions between sociology and anthropology // division of labor // education // egoistic suicide // empiricism // euphoric function // face to face societies // fieldwork // Frankenstein // functionalism // hierarchy of the sciences // historic determinism // historical method // Homo Duplex // Homo Economicus // Homo Farber //

idealism // individualism // industrial social type // infrastructure // intellectual evolution // kinship // Kula // laissez faire // language // magic (for Durkheim) // magic (for Malinowski) // material evolution // materialism // meaning of totemism (Malinowski) // meaning of totemism (Radcliffe Brown) // mechanical solidarity // militant social type // move from undifferentiated homogeneity to coherent heterogeneity //

ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny // organic metaphor // organic periods // organic solidarity // positivism // Power of Society // proletariat // psychic unity of mankind // Reasonableness of "Savages" // reciprocity // reductionism // religion (for Durkheim) // religion (for Malinowski) // religion (for Radcliffe Brown) // religion (for Marx) // revolution // rituals // rule by science // Savagery - Barbarianism - Civilization // sentiments (Radcliffe Brown) // social antagonism // social cohesion // social constraints // social dynamics // social evolution // social facts // social laws // social science // social solidarity // social statics // social structure // social time // social usage of biological relationships // Socialism // structural functionalism // struggle // superstructure // survival of the fittest // synchronic //

teleology // The Communist Manifesto // The General Will // the industrial revolution // The Internationale // The Noble Savage // The Opiate of the People // The Social Contract // thesis - antithesis - synthesis // three levels of investigation (Malinowski) // Torres Straight Expedition // Totemism // Trobriand Islands // unilinear evolution // utilitarianism // utopianism // vitalizing function // young Hegelians //

Influential People to Know:

Adam Smith // Baron Turgot // Charles Darwin // de Bonald // Feurbach // Friedrich Engels // Fustel de Coulanges // Hegel // Herodotus // Jean Jacques Rousseau // Jean Lamarck Lafitau // Lamarck // Leibnitz // Lyelle // Malthus // Marquis Condorcet // Montesque // Moses Hess // Rivers // Saint Simon // Sir James Frazer // Thomas Hobbes // William Robertson Smith //

Historic Events to know:

Revolution of 1848 // The Enlightenment // The French Revolution // The Industrial Revolution // The Internationale //

General Essay Tips:

You need to be familiar with the biographies of each theorist insofar as they effect how the thinkers create or adapt social theory to their own purposes. You should be familiar with common quests in social theory which most (and sometimes all) of the scholars seek to understand: What is society? How is society to be studied? What drives society? How is society held together? How does society change? To where will society progress? Can social action be predicted? What is the moral responsibility of the social scientist? How does society change? What is the relationship of the individual to society? What is the role of government and industry in relation to society and the individual? What kind of society is the best kind in which to live?

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This page is managed by Rev. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J. of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Creighton University. E-Mail: bucko@creighton.edu Page Last Updated: October 8, 2000

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