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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which predecessor is Locke attacking with his discussion of understanding?
(a) Descartes.
(b) Erasmus.
(c) Leibniz.
(d) Milton.

2. What do we need to do with ideas over time, according to Locke?
(a) Challenge them.
(b) Abandon them.
(c) Test them.
(d) Renew them.

3. Composition is the ability to do what, according to Locke?
(a) Combine ideas.
(b) Use ideas for practical purposes.
(c) Invent new ideas.
(d) Replace ideas with other ideas.

4. What does Locke say must be learned along with ideas?
(a) The consequences of them.
(b) The uses they can be put to.
(c) The words that refer to them.
(d) The morality of them.

5. What does Locke argue against in Chapter 2 of Book I?
(a) The idea of innate knowledge.
(b) The idea of cultural relativism.
(c) The idea of original sin.
(d) The idea of transubstantiation.

6. Discerning is the ability to do what, according to Locke?
(a) Test an idea's truth value.
(b) Evaluate the propriety of things.
(c) Distinguish between things.
(d) Correct one's ideas.

7. What does Locke say was the second thing he wanted to study?
(a) How we form beliefs.
(b) How the body registers knowledge.
(c) How we know things.
(d) How the spirit reacts to knowledge.

8. Where does Locke say ideas come from?
(a) Senses.
(b) God.
(c) Experience.
(d) Inspiration.

9. How does Locke describe the work principles do?
(a) They capture experiences.
(b) They define morals.
(c) They determine laws.
(d) They guide actions.

10. How does Locke describe experience?
(a) One of the ingredients of knowledge.
(b) The consequence of knowledge.
(c) The least important component in knowledge.
(d) The only foundation for knowledge.

11. What does Locke describe in Book II?
(a) What the mind is.
(b) How understanding uses ideas.
(c) Whether ideas are moral.
(d) Whether ideas are innate.

12. What does Locke say about sensations that an infant feels in utero?
(a) They are the basis of innate knowledge.
(b) They must be un-learned.
(c) They form the instincts.
(d) They do not constitute innate knowledge.

13. Which concept was beyond the sphere of Locke's inquiry?
(a) Why we should or should not believe certain things.
(b) What the mind is.
(c) Where our beliefs come from.
(d) Why some beliefs are better than others.

14. What is the limitation of understanding, according to Locke?
(a) It cannot reckon things that cannot be perceived.
(b) We cannot use it in religion or spirituality.
(c) We do not always know how to distinguish it from faith.
(d) We cannot turn it against itself.

15. What does Locke say about the knowledge of how property rules should be established?
(a) It must be established anew each generation.
(b) It must be learned.
(c) It must be doubted.
(d) It should be scientifically evaluated.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Locke say is required for an idea to be innate?

2. What does reflection create ideas out of?

3. What claim is Locke attacking in "Essay Concerning Human Understanding"?

4. Which is NOT a category of complex ideas, according to Locke?

5. How does Locke handle the notion that knowledge begins in doubt?

(see the answer keys)

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