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
22.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Social historians argue ████ █████ █████████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████████████ ███████
This doesn’t capture the author’s view in the last paragraph.
b
Grand theories were ███ █████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██████████
This doesn’t capture the author’s view in the last paragraph. Also, the author notes that grand theories
c
Though seductive in █████ █████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██ █████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ █████████ ███████
This doesn’t capture the author’s view in the last paragraph. Also, the author doesn’t suggest that grand theories failed to account for various universal truths. Rather, we grew to be skeptical that history proceeds based on universal laws.
d
The decline of █████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████████
This best captures the author’s view as it’s expressed in the last paragraph.
e
Though grand theories █████████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ █████████████
Although the author agrees with (E), the main point goes beyond the mere fact that grand theories provided narrative satisfaction. The author wants us to adopt a new historical perspective that provides both narrative satisfaction but also takes into account historical contingency.