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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 define a law?

2. What does Hegel say is the goal of individual self-consciousness?

3. According to Hegel, what is it that prevents the development of consciousness from producing societal problems?

4. Where does Hegel see the opportunity for good to be manifest through the actions of human beings?

5. What does Hegel relate desire to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the difference between a person and an animal in Hegel's philosophy?

2. What are the stages by which the conscious mind develops, in Hegel's terminology?

3. What are the components of a "concrete individuality" in Hegel's terminology?

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

5. How does Hegel characterize the Course of the World, and what is the result of overcoming it?

6. How does Hegel define determinateness?

7. Why does Hegel describe consciousness as unhappy?

8. How, in Hegel's view, does the self become aware of the contradiction of selfhood?

9. How does Hegel define "sensibility"?

10. According to Hegel's account, what is the mind's relationship with itself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the midst of his discussion of spirit and individuality, Hegel detours into a chapter on property and no property, and even describes communism as an ideal social system for distributing goods. What is the role of this social planning impulse throughout the rest of Phenomenology of Spirit? Is Hegel urging socio-political changes, or is he talking abstractly, or metaphorically, of the soul? How political is Hegel?

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

Analyze the things the self loses along the path of its development toward Absolute Spirit according to Hegel's philosophy. How are the individual's losses compensated with new gains, powers, abilities? Is the self conserved throughout the process, or does it end with more or less than it started with? Is it even still the same thing?

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This section contains 993 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample