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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Camus summarize the actor's art?
(a) As the ability to represent faithfully.
(b) As an absurd illusion.
(c) As dangerous counterfeit.
(d) As the ability to simulate absolutely.

2. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?
(a) Living for a very long time.
(b) Selling his soul to the Devil.
(c) Killing his mistress.
(d) As an alchemist.

3. How does Kafka express the absurd?
(a) Through tragedy.
(b) Through farce that is close to sentimentality.
(c) Through the logical.
(d) Through representations of everyday life.

4. To which school of thought does Husserl belong?
(a) Teleology.
(b) Rationalism.
(c) Phenomenology.
(d) Geomorphology.

5. What attitude can overcome all fate?
(a) Scorn.
(b) Indifference.
(c) Indolence.
(d) Diigence.

6. Why does Chestov think we turn to God?
(a) To have the feling that 'underneath are the everlasting arms'.
(b) Only to gain favors.
(c) Because we are afraid.
(d) Only to obtain the impossible.

7. What does Camus see as the one truly serious philosophical problem?
(a) Judging whether or not life is worth living.
(b) The problem of human pain and suffering.
(c) Judging the value of actions.
(d) Judging the value of religion.

8. From what does the writer wish to liberate his universe?
(a) Its phantoms.
(b) Its incoherence.
(c) Its supernovae.
(d) Its absurdity.

9. Why did the gods view Sisyphus' punishment as particularly dreadful?
(a) They saw their mistake but were unable to change things.
(b) It involved immense pain.
(c) It involved futile and hopeless labor.
(d) It was unfair relative to his crime.

10. What should be the response to subterfuge?
(a) We should admire it for its inventiveness.
(b) We should turn to it in hope.
(c) We should be suspicious of it.
(d) We should turn away from it.

11. Who is the hero of Metamorphosis?
(a) Samsa.
(b) Joseph K.
(c) Samson.
(d) Michael K.

12. According to Camus, what makes the myth of Sisyphus tragic?
(a) The presence of The Furies.
(b) The hero has received unjust punishment.
(c) The hero is conscious of his situation.
(d) He has been a plaything of the gods.

13. Of what figurative device is: 'These are our nights of Gethsemane'?
(a) It is an example of decorative prose.
(b) It is an example of idiomatic phrasing.
(c) It is an illusion.
(d) It is a metaphor.

14. What does Oedipus' remark imply?
(a) That fate is decided prior to birth.
(b) That in certain circumstances, you might negotiate with the gods.
(c) That fate is cruel and will defeat you despite your pure nature.
(d) That fate is a human matter, to be settled among men.

15. What is Camus' attitude to genius?
(a) It excuses nothing.
(b) It must be nurtured.
(c) It is anti-democratic.
(d) It excuses everything.

Short Answer Questions

1. What embodies 'a drama of the intelligence', according to Camus?

2. How does Camus see Sisyphus vis-a-vis his fate?

3. What common quality can be found in Kafka, Proust and Plotinus?

4. According to Camus, what is important about the idea that actions have consequences?

5. How does a man define himself?

(see the answer keys)

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