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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. How does Hegel describe observation?

2. According to Hegel, how does the animal fulfill its purpose?

3. What does consciousness rest on in Hegel's account?

4. What were both phrenology and cranioscopy looking for?

5. What is the main obstacle to the individual submitting to the good and the true in Hegel's view?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the two meanings Hegel gives to the term "independent self-consciousness"?

2. What is the relationship of freedom and fate in Hegel's terminology?

3. How does Hegel define hedonism?

4. What does Hegel mean by saying that consciousness is relational?

5. What does "concrete" mean in Hegel's terminology?

6. How does Hegel define determinateness?

7. How does Hegel define Reason?

8. What is the difference between "theoretical reason" and "practical reason" in Hegel's terminology?

9. How does Hegel define "sensibility"?

10. What is it that forms the basis of individuality and character, in Hegel's terminology?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hegel invokes the pre-Christian Greek cults as examples of the religious life he imagines. Is his religion pagan or "civilized"? Natural or urban? What values is he returning to by invoking the Greeks? What Christian practices is he discarding?

Essay Topic 2

Hegel uses anatomical metaphors to express his theories, such as his comparison of Sensibility to the nervous system, or Reproduction to the intestinal system. What is the role of the body in Hegel's philosophy, and are his metaphors meant to invoke the body as a constant presence behind Hegel's discussion of Reason and the development of the self-consciousness, or are they merely explanatory metaphors?

Essay Topic 3

How does Hegel's philosophy change in modern times with modern technology? With an argument based in Hegel's text, say whether the Phenomenology of Spirit needs to be updated because of modernity's developments, either in technology or politics or warfare or the arts or culture.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 714 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample