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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 is one instance when a crime cannot be punished?

2. What does Hobbes call an evil inflicted on a person who has usurped or forged his or her power?

3. What example does Hobbes give as a crime that is not a crime?

4. What does Hobbes say is a problem people have of understanding the Kingdom of Darkness?

5. How does Hobbes suggest the idea of philosophy began to grow?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hobbes say happens to one who does not believe in God?

2. Why does Hobbes insist that the commonwealth comes first?

3. What does Hobbes have to say about ministers of the ecclesiastical?

4. What is Hobbes' idea about honoring God?

5. What complication does Hobbes see in obeying the sovereign and God at the same time?

6. What does Hobbes have to say about angels?

7. From what source does Hobbes insist the idea of demons came?

8. How does Hobbes define a church?

9. What warning does Hobbes give about prophets?

10. What is a main mistake Hobbes says religious people make?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Hobbes' political philosophy, the only valid reason for taking up arms against a sovereign is for self protection. Write your paper based on Hitler's taking over Germany and the plight of the Jews and other minorities his persecuted. Hobbes' theory is that the people thus under such a sovereign are constrained to obey the laws of the sovereign first.

Essay Topic 2

For the serious student, write a paper comparing Hobbes' LEVIATHAN to Machiavelli's THE PRINCE. There are similarities in both men's position with the nobility as well as some of the strictness of their ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Write a paper on the effectiveness of punishments to control a commonwealth. How has that been carried to unreasonable extreme by such regimes as Saddam Hussein in Iraq? What, in your opinion, are the most effective punishments?

(see the answer keys)

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