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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. What does Plato say early education should do?

2. What is lacking in Aristotle's philosophy that is so evident in Plato's?

3. What does Spinoza do to support himself?

4. What is Voltaire's literary output?

5. What does Plato say is a science and art one must live and prepare for?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens because of Spinoza's questions about Judeo-Christian beliefs?

2. How does Spinoza's education come from questions he wants answers to?

3. Describe the philosophers before Socrates, Plato, and aristotle.

4. How does Durant see the evolution of stoicism into the Christian religion?

5. Explain the reasons for a break between Plato and Aristotle.

6. Who are the students of Socrates?

7. Describe Voltaire's The Essay on Morals.

8. Describe the idols Bacon identifies and wants to eliminate.

9. what methodology marks a difference in the thought processes of Plato and Aristotle?

10. Describe the origins of stoicism and Epicureanism in Greek philosophy.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a critical essay on Durant's book. Discuss his organization of the book and the selection of philosophers he chose to feature. Conclude with a recommendation for others to read the book.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on truth. In your essay comment on the difficulty of determining what truth is. Give your opinion on approaching the study of truth as a search for its origins or as a practical application for the future.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on Aristotle's idea of the soul as pure thought. In the essay discuss how this concept destroys the soul as it is generally understood in Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions.

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