Unit 3 Study Questions:

Below you will find a list of study questions to help you prepare for the Unit 3 Test. Please carefully review these questions before, during, and after you read (and re-read, and re-read) the textbook chapters. The test questions will cover the same content as the study questions (although they may be worded differently).

Chapter 7

1. Nietzsche announces the death of God in a parable      about

a. A madman holding a lantern

b. A lonely prophet walking the earth

c. Jesus

d. A desert hermit living in a cave

The madman’s proclamation that “God is dead” refers to the fact that

a. He has found incontrovertible proof that God never really existed in the first place

b. God has temporarily withdrawn Himself from the world, only to return at the end of time

c. People have ceased to believe in God 

d. None of the above

3. The madman finds the death of God to be so terrifying because

a. All of his contemporaries are grief-stricken at the sudden disappearance of God, and do not know how to recover from this frightening piece of news 

b. Without God human life is devoid of any intrinsic purpose, value, and meaning 

c. Both A and B

d. None of the above

4. Shakespeare’s Macbeth says that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” This would be an example of 

a. Theism

b. Virtue ethics 

c. Hedonism

d. Nihilism

5. “Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity…and at the least…exploitation.” Nietzsche here refers explicitly to

a. The Will to Power

b. Slave Morality

c. Judeo-Christianity

d. The German people

6. Each of the following is a characteristic of an aristocratic society EXCEPT:

a. They come into being through conquest

b. Master Morality

c. They are the embodiment of will-to-power

d. They champion full equality among all members of society

7. Master morality is to slave morality as

a. nobility is to baseness

b. higher is to lower

c. affirmation of life is to negation of life

d. All of the above

8. The “good” of master morality is to the “good” of slave morality as

a. Noble is to despicable

b. Mediocrity is to excellence

c. Despicable is to noble

d. Rare is to exceptional

9. The “evil” of slave morality is to the “bad” of master morality as

a. cowardly is to heroic

b. lover is to beloved

c. self-glorification is to resentment

d. mediocrity is to excellence

10. The “good” of master morality is to the “evil” of slave morality as

a. resentment is to honor

b. hero is to coward

c. base is to noble

d. They are one and the same thing

11. According to Nietzsche, the modern liberal democratic ideal

a. encourages slavishness

b. is the only honorable value to be found in Judeo-Christianity

c. is embraced by master morality

d. is shunned by slave morality

12. Nihilism is the belief that 

a. God is evil

b. Nothingness is an illusion of the mind

c. If we remain ignorant we will annihilate ourselves

d. The world is meaningless

13. According to Nietzsche, the slavish individual expresses _________ for the noble types.

a. admiration

b. resentment

c. a feeling of kinship

d. affection

14. According to Nietzsche, slave morality originates from

a. a feeling of superiority

b. the need for slaves to survive

c. economic inequality

d. faith in a higher power

15. According to Nietzsche, master morality originates from

a. the aristocratic man’s spontaneous self-glorification

b. resentment toward other aristocratic men

c. the need to combat low self-esteem

d. a will to the denial of life

Chapter 8

1. Ortega can best be described as

a. a nihilist

b. an elitist

c. a feminist 

d. an egalitarian

2. According to Ortega, the masses have begun to insinuate themselves in each of the following areas EXCEPT:

a. politics

b. education

c. the priesthood

d. the arts

3. According to Ortega, the phenomenon of the “masses” as a concentrated group gaining power and influence in all sectors of society 

a. is nothing new

b. is consistent with the rise of fascism in Spain

c. is a recent phenomenon

d. is a cause for great celebration

4. Each of the following is true about the mass man EXCEPT:

a. he is the “average” man

b. he belongs exclusively to the working class

c. he is comfortable in his mediocrity

d. he is not particularly ambitious

5. Each of the following is true about the “select individual” EXCEPT:

a. he snobbishly believes that he is simply superior to everyone else

b. he sets very high standards for himself

c. he assigns himself great tasks

d. his presence is not limited to any particular socio-economic stratum of society

6. The select individual is to the mass man

a. as higher is to lower

b. as rare is to common

c. as noble is to vulgar

d. all of the above

7. Before the advent of the “crowd phenomenon,” artistic, political, and intellectual enterprises were directed by

a. anybody who wanted to take part

b. only those who were select individuals

c. only those who were qualified or at least thought to be qualified

d. all of the above

8. According to Ortega, hyperdemocracy 

a. is a threat to liberal democracy

b. is the mass man’s way of imposing itself on the rest of society

c. is the mass man’s way of stifling human excellence

d. all of the above

9. Each of the following is a characteristic of the “select individual” EXCEPT:

a. judges himself against a high standard.

b. complacency

c. qualified for intellectual, aesthetic, and political endeavors

d. runs the risk of being crushed under the weight of the mass

Chapter 9

1. Sartre’s phrase “existence precedes essence” means that

a. God created man as a “blank slate” on which he can make his own essence.

b. Man created God in his own image

c. Man first has an essence, and then he confers on himself existence

d. Man exists in a godless universe, without any determinate nature or essence: he creates his own essence through his actions. 

2. According to Sartre, when you choose how to live, you are choosing

a. for your loved ones 

b. for all mankind

c. for nobody but oneself

d. none of the above

3. In Sartre’s view, the existentialist finds the fact that God does not exist

a. deeply distressing

b. liberating

c. insignificant

d. absurd to the point of being comical

4. Sartre argues that when he speaks of anguish, he is referring to  

a. the feeling of having been abandoned by God 

b. the fact that we are not responsible for our actions

c. man’s feeling of total and deep responsibility for all mankind

d. all of the above

5. According to Sartre, each human being is the sum total of his/her

a. hopes

b. actions

c. beliefs

d. ambitions

6. Sartre argues that when he speaks of forlornness, he means that

a. We are not responsible for our actions 

b. We can never truly understand human nature

c. God does not exist, so we must face all of the consequences of this

d. all of the above.

7. Sartre criticizes certain atheists in the 1880s that wanted to create an atheist ethics on the grounds that

a. without God, there can be no a priori standard of good to which everyone is bound to conform.

b. there can be no salvation without embracing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

c. atheists are generally very immoral people 

d. none of the above

8. Sartre argues that when he speaks of despair, he means that

a. when one chooses, one chooses for oneself only

b. one should reckon only with what depends on our will

c. life is a tale told by an idiot

d. all of the above

9. According to Sartre, the value of one’s feeling is determined by

a. the way one feels

b. what one believes

c. the way one acts

d. all of the above

10. Each of the following is true for Sartre EXCEPT:

a. You are the sum total of your hopes and dreams

b. Responsibility for one’s actions involves being responsible for everyone

c. Man’s situation is characterized by anguish, forlornness, and despair

d. We are condemned to be free

Chapter 10

1. According to Dalrymple in the “Frivolity of Evil” essay, human beings are predisposed to commit evil. 

T/F 

2. According to Dalrymple in the “Frivolity of Evil” essay, “depression” and “unhappiness” are one and the same.

T/F 

3. According to Dalrymple in the “Frivolity of Evil” essay, the Welfare State’s policies promote a sense of gratitude and civic and personal responsibility in the citizenry.

T/F 

4. According to Dalrymple in the “How—and How Not—to Love Mankind” essay, both Marx and Turgenev displayed a deep and abiding interest in the individual lives and fates of real human beings.

T/F 

5. According to Dalrymple in the “How—and How Not—to Love Mankind” essay, there is a temptation, particularly within the intelligentsia, to suppose that one’s virtue is proportional to one’s hatred of vice.

T/F 

6. According to Dalrymple in “What We Have to Lose,” civilization does not require that that human beings practice self-control with respect to their appetites and desires.

T/F 

7. According to Dalrymple in “What We Have to Lose,” human civilization is impervious to decay or destruction.

T/F 

8. According to Dalrymple in “What We Have to Lose,” barbarism triumphs wherever civilized human beings do nothing.

T/F

9. According to Dalrymple in “The Roads to Serfdom,” socialist thinkers are correct in their assumption that, because humanity has made so much technical progress, everything—including problems of production and consumption—must be susceptible to human control.

T/F 

10. According to Dalrymple in “The Roads to Serfdom,” collectivist or socialist ideology undermines personal responsibility and encourages uniformity of behavior and taste.

T/F