Self-study
P1
Social historians have noted that European social and political thought of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was marked by the popularity of "grand theories," influential intellectual movements such as Freudianism or Marxism that attempted to account for a broad range of historical phenomena with a single, ambitious explanation. ███
Intro ·
Grand theories
"Grand theories" attempted to account for a broad range of historical phenomena with a single, ambitious explanation.
Examples ·
Freudianism and Marxism
Freudianism: everything can be explained by psychology. Marxism: everything can be explained by economics.
Grand Theories ·
Suggest historical determinism
History develops in a deterministic way
P2
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Height of grand theories ·
Likened to scientific fact
Decline of grand theories ·
Failed predictions; failed and unjust political systems
Grand theories were not the universal explanations they purported to be. They had only limited explanatory power.
P3
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Consequence of Decline ·
Nostalgia for determinism
We don't believe in the deterministic historical explanations anymore but we kind of still want to.
Author's Argument ·
Grand theories' decline is an opportunity
Historical explanations can now focus on the contingent, the particular, and the novel; it can provide narrative satisfaction without having to view history as fully determined.
Passage Style
Single position
26.
According to the passage, which ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████████ █ █████ ███████
a
It viewed human █████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████████
This isn’t the idea of accounting for a broad range of historical phenomena with one explanation. Human psychological traits are not historical phenomena. Also, the definition of grand theory doesn’t involve viewing psychological traits as universal.
b
It had adherents ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ████ ██████████ █████
This isn’t the idea of accounting for a broad range of historical phenomena with one explanation. The definition of grand theory doesn’t involve having adherents who treat a theory as scientific fact.
c
It attempted to ███████ ███████ ██ █ ███ ████ ████████ █████████ █████████████
This isn’t the idea of accounting for a broad range of historical phenomena with one explanation. The definition of grand theory doesn’t involve an attempt to provide narrative satisfaction.
d
It attempted to ███████ ███ █ █████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████████████
Correct, for the reason explained above.
e
It emphasized the ██████████ ██ ████████████ ██████████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████
This isn’t the idea of accounting for a broad range of historical phenomena with one explanation. Contingency and particularity are part of the author’s new approach in the last paragraph. They’re not part of grand theories.