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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. Why does Hobbes say men will give up some of their freedoms?

2. What do counsels for the aristocracy generally do?

3. What two factors does Hobbes believe control mental discourse?

4. What does Hobbes identify as three basic human fears?

5. How does Hobbes classify discourse that cannot be proven?

Short Essay Questions

1. Relate Hobbes' examples of a contract or a covenant.

2. Why does Hobbes say that people fear other people?

3. How does Hobbes extol the idea of the commonwealth?

4. What are the two ways Hobbes says a commonwealth is created?

5. In what way does Hobbes warn against errors in logic or speech?

6. What is Hobbes idea of people being created equal?

7. Briefly, what does Hobbes have to say about lawful and unlawful systems?

8. How does Hobbes describe a despotic dominion?

9. How does Hobbes say people reason?

10. Describe briefly Hobbes' contract of a commonwealth.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay on how the political condition of the times may have influenced Hobbes' thinking. You may need to do a bit of research into the times and how Hobbes, once in great favor with the nobility, had fallen out of their favor.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper explaining how you think books on political philosophy do or do not benefit society. In the paper, see if you can identify ideas in Hobbes' book that have been used by politicians since his time.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper on imagination. Hobbes discredits most imagination as foolishness like coupling the concept of a man and a horse to come up with the idea of a centaur. Take the opposite position and write about how imagination is good and what it has given to the world.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 747 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample