Friday, December 16, 2011

Final Exam


Final Exam
LEH 300
Prof. Murdaco
Answer the following questions or identify the author of the following passages:
  1. When one speaks of humanity, the idea is fundamental that this is something which separates and distinguishes man from nature. In reality, however, there is no such separation: “natural” qualities and those called truly “human” are inseparably grown together. Man, in his highest and noblest capacities, is wholly nature and embodies its uncanny dual character. Those of his abilities which are terrifying and considered inhuman may even be the fertile soil out of which alone all humanity can grow in impulse, deed, and work.”
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B) Friedrich Nietzsche
  1. Which factors contributed to the downfall of the Weimar Republic?
D)   All of the above
  1. What event provided the justification for Hitler to declare a state of emergency?
B)   The Reichstag fire
  1. “Whoever wants to engage in politics at all, and especially in politics as a vocation, has to realize these ethical paradoxes. He must know that he is responsible for what he may become of himself under the impact of these paradoxes. I repeat, he lets himself in for the diabolic forces lurking in all violence.”
C)   Max Weber
  1. What is the significance of the name Spartacus?
C)   The leader of a slave revolt against the Romans

  1. What event constituted the “Great Betrayal” in the eyes of social democrats like Rosa Luxemburg?
A)   The voting of war credits by the Social Democratic Party in 1914
  1. “This examination would not be complete, however, if it did not touch upon a third and colder order that bestows its unique character on our time of change. The growing objectification of our life appears most distinctly in technology, this great mirror, which is sealed off in a unique way from the grip of pain. Technology is our uniform. Yet we are too deeply immersed in this process to comprehend it to its full extent.”
C)   Ernst Jünger
  1. “Business thrives in the ruins. Cities become piles of ruins; villages become cemeteries; countries, deserts; populations are beggared; churches, horse stalls. International law, treaties and alliances, the most sacred words and the highest authority have been torn in shreds. Every sovereign “by the grace of God” is called a rogue and lying scoundrel by his cousin on the other side. Every diplomat is a cunning rascal to his colleagues in the other party. Every government sees every other as dooming its own people and worthy only of universal contempt. There are food riots in Venice, in Lisbon, Moscow, Singapore. There is plague in Russia, and misery and despair everywhere.”
B)   Rosa Luxemburg
  1.  What is the name of the professor in The Blue Angel?
A)   Rath
  1.  What is the “twist ending” at the end of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
B)   Francis is a patient at a mental institution
  1. “This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what had been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them.”
A)   Walter Benjamin
  1. "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence."
A)   Walter Benjamin
  1.  Which period of time was relatively stable during the Weimar era?
B)   1924-1929
  1.  He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied. The ablutions were good, but they were water, they did not wash off the sin, they did not heal the spirit's thirst, they did not relieve the fear in his heart. The sacrifices and the invocation of the gods were excellent—but was that all?”
A)   Herman Hesse
  1.  After the Spartacus Uprising failed many of the former members formed which political party?
D)   KPD
  1. What day and year did World War I end?
C)   November 11th, 1918
  1. In which book does Nietzsche discuss the change in values between the Romans and the Christians?
D)   On the Genealogy of Morality
  1. What does “dada” mean?
C)   A nonsense word with no meaning
  1. “In war, when shells fly past our bodies at high speeds, we sense clearly that no level of intelligence, virtue, or fortitude is strong enough to deflect them, not even by a hair. To the extent this threat increases, doubt concerning the validity of our values forces itself upon us. The mind tends toward a catastrophic interpretation of things wherever it sees everything called into question.”
D)   Ernst Jünger
  1. What is Fridolin’s occupation in Dream Story?
B)   doctor
  1. Where did Max Weber deliver his address “Politics as a Vocation?”
B)   Munich
  1. What was one of the immediate goals of the Spartacus group?
C)   To increase the power of soldier’s and worker’s councils over military bases and factories
  1. “The honor of the civil servant is vested in his ability to execute conscientiously the order of the superior authorities, exactly as if the order agreed with his own conviction. This holds even if the order appears wrong to him and if, despite the civil servant’s remonstrances, the authority insists on the order. Without this moral discipline and self-denial, in the highest sense, the whole apparatus would fall to pieces. The honor of the political leader, of the leading statesman, however, lies precisely in an exclusive personal responsibility for what he does, a responsibility he cannot and must not reject or transfer. It is in the nature of officials of high moral standing to be poor politicians, and above all, in the political sense of the word, to be irresponsible politicians.”
A)   Max Weber

  1.  Which of the following large manufacturers were known to have used slave labor from Nazi concentration camps?
D)   All of the above
  1. What did BMW originally manufacture when it was first created?
C)   air planes
  1. “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one to another. A historical materialist therefore dissociates himself from it as far as possible. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain.”
D)   Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin "Theses on the Philosophy of History"

Friday, December 2, 2011

Quiz 2

1. Which critical event happened in January 1919 in Germany?
A.  Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered in Berlin
2. What article in the Weimar Constitution gave the legal pretext to suspend liberty?
A.  Article 48
3 . Which political party was the most dominant after the German revolution in 1918-1919?
C.   Social Democratic Party (SPD)
4. What does Völk mean?
C.   People
5. What are the three forms of domination (authority) that Weber speaks of and describe what they are?
       The three forms of domination (authority) that Weber speaks of are: Traditional Domination, Charismatic Domination and Rational-legal Domination. 
       (1)Traditional Domination: which is rule by traditional elites: kings, feudalism, sultanism, etc.
       (2) Charismatic Domination: which is rule by 'gift of grace' or heroic attributes: prophets and demagogues.
       (3) Rational-legal Domination: which is rule by legal statues and administrative procedure. 
6.Weber defines the state as...
               D.   an organization that monopolizes the use of force in a territory
       7. What year did Hitler assume power in Germany?
C.   1933

Walter Benjamin "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Assignment: Compare Benjamin and Jünger's views on photography. Why does Jünger refer to the camera as the "evil eye". How does Benjamin's views compare?

Nazism

Assignment: Choose either a passage from this blog and write out the way in which we have done all the assignments 1) Quote; 2) Interpretation; 3) Why you chose the quote. Or choose a scene from the movie, describe it, interpret it, and explain why you chose this scene. 

"In February, the Reichstag is set on fire. The Nazis blame the Communists for the fire and under the pretext of a terrorist attack, the Reichstag Fire Decrees are passed immediately and the Enabling Act is passed in March 1933 granting Hitler’s government full dictatorial powers. All of the communists and about a ¼ of the social democratic representatives in the Reichstag are forcibly prevented from voting for this law. Only the leftovers of the SPD vote against the Enabling Act, the centrist and conservative parties vote for the Enabling Act. This act gives permanent emergency powers to the German Chancellor, Hitler, who promptly suspends all civil and political liberties. The constitution remains in effect but from this point on it is just a formality. Political parties are dissolved except for the Nazi party and it becomes illegal to form new parties. The government begins cracking down on communists, artists, intellectuals, trade unionists, social democrats, and other political opponents. Feminists are attacked, as are homosexuals as traditional patriarchic values are forcibly re-established. Jews and all racial minorities are persecuted and denied any legal protection. The first concentration camp is created at Dachau, near Munich, the birthplace of Nazism in 1933. Around the cultural center of Weimar, also the former capital of the government, which represents the highest achievements of German art and humanism, the Buchenwald concentration camp is constructed in 1937 (along with hundreds more). Buchenwald is the first and Dachau is the second concentration camp liberated by the U.S. and allies in 1945, this was the first confirmation for the West of the true horrors of the Nazi regime".
    This passage talks about Hitler's raised to power. He can be consider a cheater because he used lies to gain control. He took over the nation in a blink of an eye. The way he gained so much control and power over the Germans is frighting. He denied his own people their rights and put everyone into categories. The U.S. and allies in 1945,were able to free Jews of the horrible conditions they were living and the horrible treatment they were receiving.
    I choose this passage because I have always felt that Hitler is a monster. He made many Jews suffer and the conditions they were in the concentration camps were horrible and inhumane. He even treated Germans as his pets because they had a constitution that was worth nothing, their rights were thrown to the trash and they were his puppets to do as he pleased. The cruelty of his actions I feel will never be forgotten by the world and is unbelieved that many people claim that the horrors Jews lived during his dictatorship never happened.

Max Weber: Politics as a Vocation

Assignment: Please choose a passage from “Politics as a Vocation”, write out the passage, and give the meaning of the quote as well as you chose the quote. How does Weber's writings on technical leadership, rationalization, and bureaucracy anticipate Jünger's later writings on technology?

"Today the relation between the state and violence is an especially intimate one. In the past, the most varied institutions--beginning with the sib--have known the use of physical force as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. Note that 'territory' is one of the characteristics of the state. Specifically, at the present time, the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it. The state is considered the sole source of the 'right' to use violence. Hence, 'politics' for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state” (Page 6).

    This passage written by Weber states that the state and violence have an intimate relationship. In order for a state to rule it needs to use violence to have control over the people. Weber states that "a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory" meaning that the people in the state are the ones that use violence as a way for obedience from others.Weber states as well that "The state is considered the sole source of the 'right' to use violence" meaning that violence is the key for the state's success in controlling and doing what they please. Lastly, Weber states that " 'politics'...means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state" meaning that politics causes states to want to use violence in order to have power and it influences how that power is distributed and used within the state.
    Weber's writings on technical leadership, rationalization, and bureaucracy anticipate Jünger's later writings on technology in the fact the Weber felt that the state had to much power and when a country has a lot of power they try to gain more. Technology has always played an important role in the development and rising of nations especially in times of war.
 

The Weimar Republic

Assignment: Please choose TWO sections, one from the first part on the structure of government, and a second from the second section on rights. Please write out the passages, interpret the meaning of them and explain why you chose these passages.

Article 17
Every state must have the constitution of a free state. State parliament must be elected in a general, equal, immediate and secret ballot, in which all Reich German men and women participate, according to the principles of representative election. The state government requires the confidence of state parliament.
The principles for the election of state parliament also apply for local elections. State law may determine if
those who lived in the community for one year or less may participate in the election or not.
          My interpretation of this passage is that if your a born and raised citizen you have the right to vote for whom ever you wish to represent you in parliament. This will be done without judgment and no one can know for whom you voted because it is a secret ballot. Men and women are represented equally and there is no separation. State and local elections are conducted the same way. According to state law it can be determine if "those who lived in the community for one year or less may participate in the election or not".
   I choose this passage because I feel that is important to have the right to vote and equally no separation of men or women. Is very important to have the right to vote without the fear that everyone will know who your voting especially during the time this took place. The only thing I don't agree is with the last line because in order to vote in the community you live in you should have lived there for over a year, is the same as the fact that you most be a citizen in the United States in order to vote. In my opinion everyone should have the right to express their opinion if they live in a place. 


Article 119
Marriage, as the foundation of the family and the preservation and expansion of the nation, enjoys the special protection of the constitution. It is based on the equality of both genders.
It is task of both the state and the communities to strengthen and socially promote the family. Large families may claim social welfare.
Motherhood is placed under state protection and welfare.

    My interpretation of this passage is that the family is the strength of any community. In order to have more generations that are responsible it has to start with the foundation of the family. The community plays a great role in encouraging the structure of family and togetherness. After all families create the future generations that will keep and improve the nation. Is important that gender is based on equality and that everyone has the right to better themselves and their families.
    I choose this passage because I agree that family is important and is the foundation of society. Is important that the communities in which you live promote family and care for their welfare. Also mothers' are the foundation in creating, establishing and maintaining the structure of the family.