Social unit 1 Flashcards
Define the difference between positive and normative knowledge and its significance to the Humanities
Positive knowledge is facts, history, scientific research, or “What is”. Normative is Religion, personal beliefs, morals, or “What ought to be”. It’s important because normative allows philosophy, and art, while positive allows the study and teachings of history.
Know what scarcity means and how it has affected the evolution of economic and political systems
Scarcity is the lack of resources, such as materials, housing, food, water, etc. Demand for a good or service is higher than availability. It’s affected the way we produce and decide what to produce, creating new technologies along the way. These choices can also affect the way political parties or leaders are seen.
3 factors of production
Land, the natural resources of the earth
Labour, people producing or offering goods/services
Capital, Manmade inventions useful for production
3 economic questions and how the 3 main economic systems address them.
Capitalism: Businessman or entrepreneur decides on need, driven by profit desire, driving force is greed. Efficient, inexpensive, and best quality. Higher price = higher quality, lower price = lower quality. Whoever has money can buy things - free market economy.
Socialism: Entrepreneur decides what to produce while considering more taxes, government regulation and rules. Efficient, inexpensive, with more government regulations, gov produces products or services they feel the private sector should not produce, I.E. healthcare. Whoever has money can purchase goods, social programs provide services to those who do not have as much.
Communism: Government decides what needs and how much needs to be produced based on data and priorities of the government. I.E. Military. Government decides all factors of production, quality, wages, cost and method. Everyone is paid the same, no private enterprise, all government owned.
Fully Explain the difference between the values of Individualism and Collectivism – which one is synonymous with Liberalism
Individualism: Almost everything is privately owned, it follows conservatism, classical liberalism or the want for complete freedom from interference from the government, believes that man is born evil but is resourceful in times of trouble.
Collectivism: Beliefs in more collective benefits but also supports private enterprise, modern liberalism or the belief that some government involvement in the economy is okay, assumes that man is good but helpless as individuals, must be helped in life and help others.
Collectivism is more in tune with Liberalism.
3 teachings of Socrates
Know thyself
Everything happens for a reason
A life not examined is a life not worth living.
Reasons the senate felt they needed to assassinate Julius Caesar
He was becoming too powerful, which was a really bad thing in Rome. He was a dictator at this point.
Caesar had fought the Gauls, becoming disenchanted with the senate (Optimates). He was killed on March 14, 44 bc by a group of senators titled the Liberators.
Feudalism – why did it emerge and how did it work?
After the fall of Rome, people with land had the power. They would be approached by citizens who needed jobs and eventually would become powerful enough to start a kingdom. There was no currency, little trade, and mainly lord-serf relationships, serfs or peasants being the property of lords.
Renaissance – the significance of the following
Humanism, Establishment of Banking Joint Stock Companies The age of Exploration The Protestant
the focus of self-fulfilment rather than to please God.
the acceptance of interest on loans became acceptable whereas in the dark ages this was against church beliefs.
people could invest in companies and share in profits and losses.
new lands being “discovered” and new materials brought into Europe.
Reformation, a religious reform movement during the 1500s where a branch of Christianity called Protestantism was formed.
Mercantilism – What was the objective for countries in this era
European powers would exploit colonies for resources and then bring the resource back to the mother country. There it would be constructed and the finished gold would be sold back to the colony often with a tax.
The Enlightenment – liberalism philosophers
People need order and peace to flourish - The government needs to force people or be strong to make
them behave. If the government couldn’t create peace people can remove them.
John Locke- People are fundamentally reasonable and respectful of others need to have peoples respect. Consent of the governed must be held. Government must secure the people’s rights otherwise they can be overthrown.
Jean Jacques Rousseau- Social Contract - people voluntarily agree to follow the general will Government must always reflect the will of the people.
Montesquieu- All people are born equal but social institutions make them unequal - Use of law to fix the inequalities - Checks on power were essential. He believed in a check and balances system where legislative, judicial and executive powers are equal and check on each other. The US system is based on Montesquieu.
3 Principles of the Declaration of Independence
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Boom and bust cycles of the Industrial revolution
1st IR. 1800-1850
2nd IR 1850-1900
3rd IR 1908-1947
Post-war boom 1947 - 1991
Contemporary Era 1991- present day
Main inventions of the Industrial revolution
Steam power
Precision tools
Textile operation machine
Interchangeable parts production
- 4 main principles of liberalism
Democracy (from ancient Greece/Athens)
Rule of Law (From Rome)
All men are entitled to rights
Economic Liberalism
