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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. With God dead, what remains?

2. To what type of person is Camus drawn as an artist?

3. For whose victory must we hope?

4. What symbol does Camus associate with oppression?

5. Which groups of people exchange positions rapidly in this changed world?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Camus see himself as a romantic?

2. In what way did the philosopher Socrates demonstrate his lack of intellectual arrogance?

3. What is peculiar about the built environment of Oran, according to Camus?

4. Of what is Camus speaking when he criticizes 'idealism of the worst kind' (p.188 of the Penguin edition)?

5. What lies 'beyond the yellow walls of Oran'?

6. What, according to Camus, is paradoxical about the crowded city of Oran, and crowded cities in general?

7. What factor does Camus claim separates him from some sections of the leftist movement?

8. Of what does Camus accuse the Marxists in Section III of The Artist and his Time?

9. What does Camus mean when he says that the 'tyrannies of today are improved'?

10. What attitudes and feelings does Camus convey to the reader in the opening paragraphs of his essay 'Return to Tipasa'?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

'Philosophy is simultaneously important and unimportant.' Can you explain the apparent paradox in this statement? You should make close reference to Camus' absurdist beliefs as expounded in The Myth of Sisyphus. You might like to consider what other paradoxes appear in this work and discuss the possibility of these being resolved.

Essay Topic 2

'Camus combines the sensual, spiritual and the intellectual in his collection of essays The Myth of Sisyphus.' Argue for the truth of this statement by close reference to three of the essays. You will need to explain and comment upon Camus' point of view regarding The Absurd, his admiration of Ancient Greek Culture and his evocative descriptive writing.

Essay Topic 3

Comment on the implications of what Camus calls the 'hiatus between what we fancy we know and what we really know'. You might like to focus on the famous example of Galileo and the Inquisition or cite other instances in which there was a gap between what humans thought they knew and what actually was the case ('flat' earth or the 'impossibility of stones falling from the sky'). As well as examining the implications of this hiatus, consider solutions to the problem.

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