SOSYOLOJİYE GİRİŞ - Deneme Sınavı - 5

Karl Marx developed a theory called historical materialism, which had a great influence in the field.

“Surplus value” refers to the difference between the value produced by workers and the payment they are given.

Durkheim adopted a point of view called functionalism and greatly contributed to the development of structural functionalism.

Functionalists argue that just like a biological system, a social system also has basic needs to be met.

The most significant contribution of Saint-Simon to the development
of sociology is the term industrial society, which successfully influenced both the radicals like Marx and the conservative theoreticians like
Comte at same time by reflecting both socialist and conservative point of views.

Comte acknowledges that there are similarities as well as differences between natural reality and social reality. Therefore, he claims that not only scientific methods but also historical methods should be used while studying the social world.

Comte summarizes his ideas about this point of view in his well-known evolution theory known as “law of the three stages”, which he developed under the influence of the studies by Saint-Simon.

Comte rejects radical social changes like the French Revolution.

Comte believed that positivism would bring great advantages to human beings both in natural sciences and social sciences. He argued that positivism should ultimately become a religion by replacing other traditional religions

Inspired by Comte’s works and having an important role in
early phases of British sociology, Spencer adapted the “natural selection” principle, which means the survival of the fittest, into social evolution and rejected any type of state interventions and social reforms that are supportive of disadvantaged individuals in social life.

Unfortunately, this approach, which is called Social Darwinism because of Spencer’s ideas based on natural selection, was used as an excuseto legitimize social inequality and discrimination;especially racist discourse and policies. Although
Social Darwinism was influential in the early developments of sociological theories, its effect onthis development weakened in the 20th century, just like other evolutionary theories.

Workers are often paid less than they deserve and
the remaining “surplus value” becomes the “profit” for the capitalist. As such, surplus value refers to the difference between the value produced by the workers and he payment they are given.

Conflict theories enphasize the important of social structures in societies; however, unlike
functionalism, which focuses on the consensus,
they focus on power, social divisions, inequality
and struggle among different groups pursuing their
own interests (Giddens, 2009:24).

All except IV are correct. Functionalism deals with society as a system based on self-regulation.

Saint-Simon discusses society within an evolutionist and positivist conceptual framework. Accordingly, societies evolve from feudal and military societies to industrial societies. For Saint- Simon, industrial society, which he defines as the “positive” stage, differs from other stages in terms of production, technology, information, science, division of labour, class structure and political structure. The correct answer is C. 

While industrial society is a term suggested by Saint-Simon, natural selection and free market are some of the basic terms used in Spencer's ideology. Besides, ideal type is a concept suggested by Weber to be used instead of certain concepts used in natural sciences such as law. However, social dynamics is one of the study fields which examines social transformation according to Comte. The correct answer is B.

According to Spencer, social transformation in Darwin’s terms operates on the hypothesis that the strong ones survive and weak ones die, that is the natural selection law. The correct answer is A. 

Karl Marx developed a theory called historical materialism, which had a great influence in the field. In this theory, which emphasizes the importance of economic factors rather than thoughts and values in social transformation and can be defined briefly as “embracing history from a materialist point of view”, Marx specifically focuses on production. The correct answer is E.

According to Durkheim, society is similar to a biological organism consisting of components having different functions to form a unity. He emphasizes that society has sanction power on individuals through social facts. For Durkheim, social facts have important functions in maintaining the continuity of societies. In this respect, even crime and punishment are functional facts to determine the limits of socially acceptable behaviors. Also, he believed that collective consciousness forms the basis of a central value and norm system that unites the parts in a social organism. Besides, he thought that moral consensus or social ethics, which is based on collective consciousness, is closely related to religion, and religion is one of the most important facts that shape social solidarity. 

On the other hand, that when conflicts in capitalism increase, socialism, which is a classless society stage, will prevail is one of Marx's claims. 

The correct answer is C.

Weber is critical about positivism and places special importance on bureaucracy. The correct answer is D.