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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Locke define passive powers?
(a) They have no internal direction.
(b) They only exist when more than two things come into contact.
(c) They are essential to the things themselves.
(d) They are the inertia of things.

2. When does desire become action, in Locke's opinion?
(a) When it first stirs.
(b) When it merges with will.
(c) When it develops into a philosophy.
(d) When it is unrequited.

3. What does Locke say liberty is aimed at?
(a) Relief of suffering.
(b) Compassion for others.
(c) Pursuit of happiness.
(d) Pursuit of profit.

4. How does Locke resolve the contradiction between people who believe in free will and people who do not?
(a) He says that determinism is determined in free choices in every moment.
(b) He says that the world has choices, even if people do not.
(c) He says that people have a choice whether to follow their wills.
(d) He says that there is indeterminism on a sub-atomic level, that allows for free choice.

5. What is it that contributed to the pervasiveness of language, in Locke's account?
(a) Dictionaries.
(b) The use of general terms.
(c) The simplicity of grammar.
(d) Legal disputes.

6. What does Locke say about the form of signs and words?
(a) They are arbitrary.
(b) They are innate.
(c) They are determined.
(d) They are divine.

7. What are all words generated by, in Locke's account?
(a) Experiences.
(b) Ideas.
(c) Chaos.
(d) Feelings.

8. What modern movement did Locke prefigure in his arguments about philosophical language?
(a) Relativists.
(b) Ontology.
(c) Ordinary language philosophy.
(d) Deconstruction.

9. What is the limit toward which our idea of number extends, according to Locke?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Zero.
(c) Ultimate variety.
(d) One.

10. What idea does Locke say we use when we define a horse?
(a) The idea of God.
(b) The idea of nature.
(c) The idea of human superiority.
(d) The idea of animal.

11. What is reification?
(a) Seeing words as objects.
(b) Seeing words as money.
(c) Seeing words as things to be exchanged.
(d) Seeing words as people.

12. What abuse does Locke say is typical of scholars?
(a) Using poetic language.
(b) Using foreign languages.
(c) Using technical language.
(d) Using obscure words.

13. Where does Locke say we see the origin of our idea of number?
(a) Our bodies and minds.
(b) Trees in a forest.
(c) Grains of sand.
(d) Flocks of geese.

14. What is the philosopher's most important job, according to Locke?
(a) Demolish opponents' arguments.
(b) Recall the steps by which truth was arrived at.
(c) Clarify meanings of terms.
(d) Arrive at truth.

15. What makes philosophers think that people do not have free will?
(a) The mathematics of probabilities.
(b) Divine will.
(c) Causal necessity in nature.
(d) The inexorable shape of history.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why don't most words refer to simple ideas, in Locke's account?

2. What does Locke use as a definition of active powers?

3. How does Locke define truth in an idea?

4. What does Locke say words refer to?

5. How can we understand the properties of things, according to Locke?

(see the answer keys)

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