Lesson 6: The Material Self

Question 1

Suggests that one innocent purchase can unexpectedly spiral into an endless cycle of complementary consumption

Answer 1

Diderot Effect

Question 1

“I was absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one.”

Answer 1

Denis Diderot

Question 2

Originally articulated through an essay entitled “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown” by 18th century French philosopher Denis Diderot

Answer 2

Diderot Effect

Question 3

Each time we get to wear garments of varying kind is a chance for us to “bring them into relationship with the surface of our body” and inject them with the very “consciousness of our personal existence”

Answer 3

Herman Lotze in Microcosmus (1890)

Question 4

_____ is the mother of consumption

Answer 4

Necessity

Question 5

________ are based off conventions and are, by nature, arbitrary

Answer 5

Meanings

Question 6

_______ are unmotivated signs, with no fixed definitions

Answer 6

Words

Question 7

The present always is the _____ and the _____ or concept of abstraction

Answer 7

signifier…signified

Question 8

Literal interpretation of something

Answer 8

Denotation

Question 9

Pertains to culture — specific meanings and ideologies

Answer 9

Connotation

Question 10

1. Needs Arousal/Recognition
2. Informational Search
3. Evaluation of Alternatives
4. Purchase Decision
5. Post-purchase Behavior/Feelings

Answer 10

Five Stages in Philip Kotler’s (1980) Buyer Decision Process:

Question 11

A person’s hard work justifies his/her consumption

Answer 11

Calvinist Principle

Question 12

Society determine the consciousness

Answer 12

Karl Marx

Question 13

Workers who have no means of production

Answer 13

Proletariats

Question 14

Centralizes power to itself

Answer 14

Ruling Class

Question 15

The self-awareness of individuals belonging to a specific class

Answer 15

Class Consciousness

Question 16

A rather primitive belief (has roots in anthropology) that inanimate objects can be imbued with god-like powers

Answer 16

Fetishism

Question 17

Pertains to how certain goods are given high monetary value with no regard to the labor that went into their creation

Answer 17

Commodity Fetishism

Question 18

According to William James, it is centered on the physical body, with emphasis on one’s material possessions and the family to which he/she belongs

Answer 18

The Material Self