View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How do use and habit affect pleasure?

2. Why, according to Burke, is proportion not the cause of beauty in animals?

3. What is the effect of opiates or liquors, according to Burke?

4. Why does Burke include a section on the effect of words in "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

5. What type of word are man, castle, horse, etc., as defined by Burke?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, to Burke, is the most affecting type of language in poetry and literature?

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

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

4. According to Burke, why is the taste of sweetness pleasant, and how does he decide this?

5. How does Burke define deformity?

6. What example does Burke use to demonstrate that perfection is not the cause of beauty?

7. How does Burke define ugliness, and how does Burke relate ugliness to beauty?

8. What two examples does Burke use to illustrate the sublimity of succession in visual objects? Upon which principles does Burke assert these two examples operate?

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

10. Why are small objects more suited to the beautiful and large objects more suitable to the sublime, according to Burke?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Burke define proportion, and under which human faculty does it fall? Why, according to Burke, is proportion not the cause of beauty in vegetation and animals? What examples does Burke use to prove this point? In his discussion of proportionality among human figures, what censure does Burke lay upon advocates of proportion-as-beauty? What influence does the theme of nature vs. artifice have upon Burke's perceptions of proportion and beauty?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Burke's attempts to prove a mind-body connection in Part IV. What does Burke acknowledge to be the limitations of this study? How are specific states of mind manifested by the body's reactions? How does Burke define "association?" How does association, as well as natural causes, affect the mind? What methods does Burke employ to discover the connection between mind and body? Does Burke use anecdotal examples, observational evidence or another kind of proof? How does he describe or define the basic cause of emotions being physically manifested in the body? Does the pathway between mind and body seem to run both ways, or only one way, according to Burke's arguments?

Essay Topic 3

What, according to Burke, is sublime about religion? What tool do many religions make use of, to what ends? Carefully analyze the example Burke offers in Part II, Section V, beginning on page 61. Pay close attention to Burke's word choice, use of imagery, figurative language, selection of references or allusions, and the general tone with which he writes. How does this example reinforce Burke's assertions about religion and power? Are there any problems you see with this example, or any counter-arguments you can mak?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,323 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample