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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. Why does Burke offer a second edition of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?
(a) He wishes to change and contradict his own views.
(b) He wishes to directly challenge the criticism of the first edition.
(c) He wishes to expand and further illustrate his theories.
(d) He realizes that he could make more money selling a second edition.

2. What are sources of the "sublime?"
(a) Anything that causes the subject to think deeply.
(b) Anything of beauty.
(c) Anything that promotes pleasure.
(d) Anything that excites terror, pain, or danger.

3. What is the state between pleasure and pain, according to Burke?
(a) Indifference.
(b) Anger.
(c) Confusion.
(d) Joy.

4. How does Burke define sympathy?
(a) As a desirable state of mind reached by looking inward towards one's own soul.
(b) As an unnecessary show of weakness that will cause pain.
(c) As a sort of emotional substitution between people or through art.
(d) As a painful realization, and reasoned acceptance, of one's humanity .

5. Why is imitation important, according to Burke?
(a) It allows us to learn in school.
(b) It facilitates comedy in the theater.
(c) It forms our manners and opinions.
(d) It is how we try to get closer to God.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Burke's argument for the existence of the passion of ambition?

2. What does Burke assert is necessary for the success of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

3. Why, according to Burke, do we delight in the tragedies of others?

4. What general quality does Burke assert about "taste?"

5. What attracts people to one another, argues Burke?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, according to Burke, is sublime about religion?

2. Briefly describe the significance of human judgment to the faculty of taste.

3. What types of colors are productive of the sublime, and which colors are not, according to Burke?

4. What is the significance of power in Burke's Enquiry, and what is one example he gives of power?

5. What does Burke identify as the central tension between the imagination and the judgment?

6. What is astonishment, according to Burke, and why is it important?

7. What is the difference between taste and knowledge, according to Burke?

8. What is the significance of the imagination, to Burke?

9. What is the cause of a wrong taste, and what are examples of it?

10. Describe the passions belonging to society, as Burke introduces them.

(see the answer keys)

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