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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bataille say dominates history in "Popular Front in the Street"?
(a) Fascists.
(b) Revolutions.
(c) Democracies.
(d) Technologies.

2. Who developed the theory of conspicuous consumption?
(a) Thorstein Veblen.
(b) Max Weber.
(c) Karl Marx.
(d) John Dewey.

3. Whom does Bataille say can never touch the reality of earth?
(a) Capitalists.
(b) Those who exploit the earth for profit.
(c) Those who do not understand it.
(d) Fascists.

4. What does Bataille's 'me in the void' realize in "Sacrifices"?
(a) That he might cease to exist.
(b) That he has dominion over everything.
(c) That he might have to create himself.
(d) That he doesn't exist.

5. How does bourgeois society enslave and degrade poor men, in Bataille's opinion?
(a) By showering them with goods.
(b) By keeping them poor.
(c) By preventing them getting medical attention.
(d) By forcing them to compete with machines.

6. What does Bataille say money measures, in "Psychological Structure of Fascism"?
(a) Power.
(b) Status.
(c) Money.
(d) Work.

7. What does Bataille say scientists said about the dialectic?
(a) It was the one true science.
(b) It was a matter of faith.
(c) It was demonstrated in evolution.
(d) It was incompatible with science.

8. What was the essay "Sacrifices" used as?
(a) A personal essay.
(b) A criticism.
(c) As a preface.
(d) A review.

9. From what does Bataille say Alfred Baumler distilled a doctrine of the people's will to power?
(a) Nietzschean religion.
(b) Nietzschean contradiction.
(c) Nietzschean politics.
(d) Nietzschean metaphor.

10. What does Bataille say the theory of conspicuous consumption is used for?
(a) Keeping the poor weak.
(b) Melting different cultures together in America.
(c) Giving the poor opportunities.
(d) Preserving segregation between rich and poor.

11. What approaches to Hegel's philosophy did Nicolai Hartmann compare?
(a) Historical and philosophical.
(b) Feminist and modernist.
(c) Practical and theoretical.
(d) Verbal and reality-based.

12. What claim does Bataille make in "The Obelisk"?
(a) That fascism is centered on the monuments it builds to itself.
(b) That the past always has to be imported from elsewhere.
(c) That nationalism is never carved in stone.
(d) That there is no mystery in the world of spirit.

13. What does Bataille say profit leads to, in "The Labyrinth"?
(a) Purgatory.
(b) Salvation.
(c) Illumination.
(d) Degradation.

14. What does Bataille say about meaning in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?
(a) Things can only have meaning when they are fictitious.
(b) Things can only have meaning if they motivate actions.
(c) Things cannot have meaning unless they are historical realities.
(d) Things can only have meaning if there is a consensus about them.

15. What circumstances must be in place for the science function to be served, in Bataille's account in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?
(a) Religion must be referred to in its sense of its goals.
(b) Profit must be part of the goal.
(c) Science must be the only goal.
(d) It must serve someone's sense of power.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Engels look for examples to test the dialectic method of Marx and Hegel?

2. What is the significance of the image of the labyrinth in the "The Labyrinth"?

3. What does Bataille describe in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?

4. What happens when political action leads to nothing, in "The Sacred Conspiracy"?

5. When is the 'me' free to accept individuality and transcendence, in Bataille's opinion in "Sacrifices"?

(see the answer keys)

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