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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Burke term "simple abstract" words?

2. To which scientific finding does Burke compare his study of the beautiful and sublime?

3. How does Burke define "proportion?"

4. How should the eye move, in order to qualify as beautiful, according to Burke?

5. What has Burke observed in himself regarding the passions and the body, in Section IV?

Short Essay Questions

1. What types of sounds, smells, and tastes can be considered beautiful, according to Burke?

2. Briefly summarize the three classes of words that Burke identifies.

3. What is the "real" cause of beauty, according to Burke?

4. In his discussion of proportionality among human figures, what censure does Burke lay upon advocates proportion-as-beauty?

5. What does Burke propose to study in Part IV? What caveat does he offer his readers?

6. Why, according to Burke, are humans readily affected by the passions of others?

7. How does Burke use women as examples to demonstrate some of the aspects of beauty?

8. According to Burke, how does the human eye work?

9. What does Burke mean by "fitness," and why is fitness not, according to him, the cause of beauty?

10. To what effect does Burke use the example of Campanella?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Burke define and categorize power? What is the significance of power to the sublime? What is power's relation to pain and pleasure? How does Burke relate danger to power? What are some of the examples Burke uses to represent power, and do you think they are accurate examples?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the ways in which "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" is a gendered text. Is the role of women in the text obvious or subtle, and in what ways? How does Burke's near universal usage of masculine or second person pronouns affect the way you read the text? How is Burke's use and inclusion of women reflective of the role and status of women in mid-18th century English society? What is your reaction to Burke's characterization of and use of women in the text? How can you apply what you know of feminist critical theory or gender theory to approach "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

Essay Topic 3

What are the limitations of the use of first-person perspective? What are the advantages to it? Do you feel that Burke uses any strategies to combat the limitations of this perspective, and if so, what does he do? What specific language does he employ, and with what results? How do the two Prefaces employ first-person perspective? What tone does Burke adopt in them, and do you think his tone is at all a product of the written point of view? Can you categorize the Prefaces as ultimately self-serving, useful, argumentative, informative to the state of his mind, etc., or is doing so problematic in and of itself? How do these instances of first-person perspective affect your reaction to the text? For example, do you feel more like a real person is speaking to you, rather than like you're being lecture?

(see the answer keys)

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