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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From what does the writer wish to liberate his universe?
(a) Its incoherence.
(b) Its supernovae.
(c) Its absurdity.
(d) Its phantoms.

2. According to Camus, what is the most obvious symbol in The Trial?
(a) A knife.
(b) Shame.
(c) An insect.
(d) Naturalness.

3. What common quality can be found in Kafka, Proust and Plotinus?
(a) Pity for suffering.
(b) Nostalgia for childhood.
(c) Nostalgia for a lost paradise.
(d) Rejection of paradise.

4. What is a consequence of love?
(a) The stronger the love, the less absurd it is.
(b) The stronger the love, the stronger the absurdity.
(c) It is impossible to assess because every relationship is different.
(d) Marriage and children.

5. What argument does Camus dismiss as 'a matter of profound indifference'?
(a) Whether or not the earth revolves around the sun.
(b) The ontological argument.
(c) Whether or not the Bible is literally true.
(d) The absurd dilemma.

Short Answer Questions

1. What information do we have about Sisyphus in the underworld?

2. What has been the focus of don Juan's existence?

3. What has Camus to say about Kirilov's reasoning?

4. In what way is a modern worker similar to Sisyphus?

5. What is ridiculous about the writer who emulated Peregrinos?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Camus' basic criticism of phenomenology?

2. What technique of Kafka's does Camus posit as the reason for the unity in that writer's work?

3. What is The Trial about?

4. What is Camus' attitude to Galileo?

5. What does Camus say is tiresome about the human heart (p. 115 of the Penguin edition)?

6. What does humanity need to do in order to understand the world?

7. How did Sisyphus attempt to test his wife's love?

8. How does Camus account for the promiscuity of don Juan?

9. According to Camus, what is the one serious problem for philosophy?

10. In an absurd universe, are all actions permitted?

(see the answer keys)

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