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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Aristotle's foundation of logic?
(a) the art of listening
(b) the way to make a syllogysm
(c) the way to ask Socratic questions
(d) the art and method of correct thinking

2. What is something Voltaire is noted for with his critics?
(a) ignoring his enemies
(b) challenging his enemies to duels
(c) destroying enemies with a pen
(d) suing his enemies in court

3. How does Voltaire think what is wrong with most recorded history could be corrected?
(a) only scholars should write history
(b) only philosophers should write history
(c) history should only be written by scientists
(d) history should be forgotten

4. To answer Rousseau, what satirical story does Voltaire write about the best of all possible worlds?
(a) Utopia
(b) Atlantis
(c) The Misanthrope
(d) Candide

5. How does Spinoza explain references to God's halting the natural function of nature on several occasions in the Bible?
(a) those are allegories of God's power
(b) things like that spring from traditions
(c) the meaning is not clear in the scripture
(d) God and the processes of nature are one

6. What is the first of four books written by Spinoza?
(a) The Philosophy of the Ages
(b) The Fall of the Roman Empire
(c) The History of War
(d) The Treatise on Religion and the State

7. What does Plato say is a science and art one must live and prepare for?
(a) statesmanship
(b) military leadership
(c) teaching the young
(d) oratory

8. What event makes the rival schools of Stoicism and Epicureanism split philosophically?
(a) the Romans' arrival in 46 B.C.
(b) the disintegration of public infrastructures
(c) the arrival of missionaries from the East
(d) the resurgance of Judaism

9. What do the concepts of praise or blame indicate according to Aristotle?
(a) disagreements in society
(b) a way of avoiding responsibility
(c) the need for athletic contests
(d) moral responsibility and free will

10. What does Voltaire include in his histories?
(a) customs and not laws
(b) art and not science
(c) people and not dates
(d) society, not just wars

11. What does Spinoza do to support himself?
(a) tutors students
(b) grinds optical lenses
(c) writes for a newspaper
(d) gives violin lessons

12. When does Plato return to Athens and begin to write?
(a) at the age of fifty in 397 B. C.
(b) at the age of forty in 387 B.C.
(c) at the age of twenty-eight when Socrates dies
(d) at the age of thirty while touring the middle east

13. Like Aristotle, what does Bacon see needs to be removed to avoid revolution?
(a) the right to bear arms
(b) the right to vote
(c) the ownership of private property
(d) issues that cause poverty and discontent

14. What is lacking in Aristotle's philosophy that is so evident in Plato's?
(a) a clear objective
(b) a means of testing
(c) a reforming zeal
(d) a good use of rhetoric

15. What natural calamity do European religious leaders label as the punishment of God?
(a) a volcano in Italy
(b) an earthquake in Lisbon
(c) a flood in Germany
(d) a fire in Rome

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Voltaire's Essay on Morals become?

2. Eventually what does Alexander's conquests in Asia open up to the Greeks?

3. What does Spinoza suggest the aim of Biblical language is meant to do?

4. What is Voltaire's literary output?

5. At his birth in 384 B.C., into what kind of family is Aristotle born?

(see the answer keys)

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