View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bataille say is the only religion for fascists?
(a) Race.
(b) Technology.
(c) Christianity.
(d) Power.

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

3. How is the question of 'what exists compared to what appears' resolved, in "Sacrifices"?
(a) By unraveling the mystery of language.
(b) By accepting the duality of latent and manifest action.
(c) By moving beyond questions of present and past.
(d) By answering what is required to exist for moral value.

4. What did fascism use Nietzsche's writing to oppose?
(a) The view of the past being taught in German schools.
(b) The current political system.
(c) The policies of Daladier.
(d) Sentimentalism.

5. What does Bataille describe in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?
(a) How Hegel's dialectic method inspired revolutions.
(b) How Marx's dialectic method was misinterpreted.
(c) How Marx's dialectic method was developed.
(d) How Marx's dialectic method was critiqued.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is classical utility theory inadequate to define, in Bataille's opinion?

2. What does Bataille use as evidence of his position on dialectics?

3. Whom does Bataille say can never touch the reality of earth?

4. What value does money articulate for workers?

5. What does Bataille say poor people cannot stop rich people from doing?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bataille portray Engels' interpretation of Hegel's philosophy in "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic"?

2. What is the importance of the obelisk in "The Obelisk"?

3. How does the artist give meaning in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"?

4. What is Bataille's theme in "The Labyrinth"?

5. Judging by "The Critique of the Foundations of the Hegelian Dialectic" and his other essays, what does Bataille see as the value of dialectics?

6. What will cause the death and resurrection of God, in Bataille's account in "Propositions"?

7. Summarize Nicolai Hartmann's interpretation of Hegel.

8. How does Andre Masson create the tone of the drawings in the book for which Bataille wrote a preface?

9. Briefly describe the theory of conspicuous consumption.

10. Describe Bataille's notion of potlatch.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 809 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample