Quiz: Lectures on the Philosophy of History

All 50 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What did Napoleon tell Goethe had taken the place of ancient Fate?

   Money Religion Politics Science
2. 2. How does Hegel illustrate the effect of caste on morality?

   Where we call bravery a virtue, the Hindus call it the virtue of the warrior caste The worship of cattle shows that the Hindus place animals above human beings Widow-burning shows that the Hindus value obedience above the life of the individual The laws of inheritance show that property, not persons, has moral standing
3. 3. How does Hegel treat Africa south of the Sahara?

   As the next stage of world history, after the Germanic world As “no historical part of the World”, to be left without further mention As part of the Oriental World, alongside China, India and Persia As the cradle of humanity, where world history begins
4. 4. Which battle does Hegel link with the three great Greek tragedians?

   Plataea Salamis Marathon Thermopylae
5. 5. Why, according to Hegel, do we feel “at home” among the Greeks?

   Because Greece is part of Europe Because their language is like German Because the Greeks were Christians Because we are in the region of Spirit
6. 6. What does Hegel’s example of building a house illustrate?

   Labour is the essence of man Nature is always hostile to human purposes and labour Passions build an order that then restrains them The state must be planned in advance like a building
7. 7. What does Hegel say experience and history teach?

   That the best government is always the oldest one That peoples and governments never learn from history That history always repeats itself in the same order That great men are always rewarded
8. 8. Why does Hegel decline to discuss America in detail?

   He knew too little about it, as no reliable reports had reached Europe It belongs to European history, being only a colony of the Old World It is the land of the future, and philosophy does not prophesy It has no geography worth discussing, being still largely unexplored
9. 9. When, according to Hegel, is a political revolution sanctioned in people’s opinions?

   When it is led by a great man When it repeats itself When it is bloodless When the Church blesses it
10. 10. What principle did Socrates introduce, according to Hegel, that broke with Greek ethical life?

    Belief in one God above the gods of the city Democracy and the rule of the assembly The rule of written law over ancestral custom The individual’s own insight as judge of right action
11. 11. Which peoples, says Hegel, belong to world history?

    Only those which form a state All peoples equally Only Christian peoples Only those with an alphabet and literature
12. 12. Why does Hegel say China is “at once the oldest and the newest”?

    Because it has two capitals Because its principle has not changed from the beginning Because it was refounded in modern times by the Manchus Because Europeans had only recently come to know it
13. 13. Without what, says Hegel, has nothing great in the world been accomplished?

    Wealth Planning Passion Religion
14. 14. According to Hegel, the Eastern nations knew that one is free and the Greeks and Romans that some are free. What does the modern world know?

    That only citizens are free That all are free That none are free That the wise alone are free
15. 15. What does Hegel call the way Reason sets the passions to work for itself while remaining untouched?

    The cunning of reason The world-soul The invisible hand The irony of fate
16. 16. How does Hegel explain the severity of the Roman character?

    Rome was ruled from the first by priests who imposed strict rites Rome copied its laws and discipline from the Spartans Rome had a harsh climate and poor soil that hardened its people Rome was founded by force, as a band of fugitives and robbers
17. 17. In which direction does world history travel, according to Hegel?

    In a circle From North to South From West to East From East to West
18. 18. What is the “only Thought” philosophy brings to the study of history?

    That events are ruled by chance That God’s ways are unknowable to human reason That history is driven by economic need That Reason is the sovereign of the world
19. 19. Which three geographical types does Hegel distinguish?

    Tropical, temperate and frozen polar zones Mountain ranges, forests and great sandy deserts Upland plateaus, river valleys and coast lands Islands, peninsulas and the inland continents
20. 20. Which saying answers the riddle of the Egyptian spirit, according to Hegel?

    “I am that which is, that which was” “All is water” Apollo’s “Man, know thyself” “Nothing in excess”
21. 21. How does Hegel describe the State?

    A necessary evil The Divine Idea as it exists on earth The instrument by which one class rules another A contract among individuals
22. 22. Why, according to Hegel’s addition to the proverb, is no man a hero to his valet?

    Because the valet is a valet Because familiarity breeds contempt Because heroes have private vices Because valets are envious
23. 23. Which two figures frame Greek life, in Hegel’s account?

    Achilles and Alexander Solon and Pericles of Athens Homer and Plato Theseus and Philip
24. 24. Why, according to Hegel, is slavery impossible under Christianity?

    Because the Church itself owned no slaves Because man as man is valued in God’s sight Because Roman law forbade it Because Christians had no need of slave labour
25. 25. What does Hegel call a necessary condition of Greek democracy?

    Slavery Sea power Monarchy Written law
26. 26. How does Hegel describe his philosophy of history in its final sentences?

    As a history of philosophy told through nations As a prophecy of the future of Europe As a science of society and its laws As the true theodicy, justifying God in history
27. 27. What, according to Hegel, did Robespierre’s rule of “virtue” lead to?

    The restoration of the Church as the guardian of public and private morals Peace with Europe, since a virtuous republic had no need of war A constitutional monarchy, since virtue required a stable head of state Terror, since virtue based on disposition alone breeds suspicion
28. 28. Which writers does Hegel give as examples of “original” history?

    Livy and Tacitus Herodotus and Thucydides Gibbon and Hume Niebuhr and Johannes von Müller
29. 29. Which Chinese inventions does Hegel say the Chinese failed to apply?

    Paper money and porcelain Silk and tea The magnet and printing The wheel and the plough
30. 30. Into which three kinds does Hegel divide the writing of history?

    Original, reflective and philosophical Ancient, medieval and modern Political, religious and economic Narrative, critical and universal
31. 31. What names does Hegel give to the three periods of the German world?

    Empire, Church and State The ages of Faith, Reason and Freedom The Kingdoms of the Franks, the Saxons and the Swabians The Kingdoms of the Father, the Son and the Spirit
32. 32. What does Hegel conclude after calling slavery “in and for itself injustice”?

    That it should be abolished at once by force That it should be left to the churches That it should be abolished gradually That it is justified by nature
33. 33. Which world-historical individual does Hegel use as his main example in the Introduction?

    Napoleon Julius Caesar Luther Alexander the Great
34. 34. How does Hegel define the history of the world?

    The progress of the consciousness of freedom The history of class struggles and their resolution The succession of dynasties The growth of population, wealth and the arts
35. 35. Which people does Hegel call “the first Historical People”?

    The Greeks The Egyptians The Persians The Chinese
36. 36. As gravity is the essence of matter, what is the essence of Spirit?

    Love Will Thought Freedom
37. 37. Which Greek philosopher first taught that Reason (νοῦς) governs the world, according to Hegel?

    Heraclitus Parmenides Anaxagoras Democritus
38. 38. Which stage of human life does Hegel compare the Oriental world to?

    Adolescence Old age Childhood Early manhood
39. 39. Who edited the first edition of the lectures?

    John Sibree Eduard Gans Karl Hegel Karl Rosenkranz
40. 40. What image does Hegel use for history seen in terms of its suffering?

    A slaughter-bench A ladder A river A theatre
41. 41. What did the Crusaders find in Jerusalem, according to Hegel’s image?

    The empty Sepulchre, but not the union of the secular and the eternal The relics of the apostles, which they carried home to Europe The Holy Grail, which became the object of later romances The ruins of Solomon’s temple, which they restored as a church
42. 42. Why did liberalism fail in Spain and Italy, according to Hegel?

    Napoleon withdrew his support once the liberals turned against him Their peoples were too poor to care for political rights Their armies were too weak to defend a constitution against Austria It is false that there can be a revolution without a reformation
43. 43. When did Hegel first deliver the course?

    Winter 1806–07 Summer 1818 Winter 1830–31 Winter 1822–23
44. 44. In the religion of Zoroaster, how is the good principle worshipped?

    As Light As Fate As the Sun-king As an animal
45. 45. What, according to Hegel, is the usual fate of world-historical individuals?

    No happy one: early death, murder or exile Long and peaceful retirement amid public honours Canonisation by the Church Oblivion until rediscovered by later historians
46. 46. What is “the essence of the Reformation”, according to Hegel?

    Faith alone without works Man is in his very nature destined to be free The Bible in the vernacular The independence of the German princes from Rome
47. 47. Why, according to Hegel, had the United States not yet become a real state?

    It had no standing army, so it could not defend itself against its neighbours Its president held too much power, so it was really an elective monarchy Discontented people could always move west, so social pressure never built up It had no established church, so nothing bound its citizens together
48. 48. What does Hegel take as the symbol of the Egyptian spirit?

    The pyramid The Sphinx The Nile in flood The scarab beetle
49. 49. How does Hegel describe the French Revolution’s first appearance?

    A necessary catastrophe A repetition of Rome A glorious mental dawn A French national illness
50. 50. What sequence of political forms does Hegel give?

    Despotism, then democracy and aristocracy, then monarchy Theocracy, republic, empire Tribe, city, nation Monarchy, then aristocracy, then democracy, and then tyranny