Quiz: Critique of Practical Reason

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What does the man ordered by his prince to bear false witness against an honourable man learn about himself?

   That his lust is irresistible after all That self-love always prevails over the fear of death That he is free, since he knows he could refuse That the prince’s command binds him as a moral law
2. 2. What status does Kant give to the moral necessity of assuming God’s existence?

   An objective duty commanded by the moral law The ground of all moral obligation whatever A subjective need connected with duty, not itself a duty A theoretical proof drawn from the order and design of nature
3. 3. What is the “paradox of method” in the second Critique?

   God must be known before duty Good and evil are defined only after the moral law Happiness must be defined before virtue Freedom must be proved before the moral law can be known
4. 4. If time and space are not ideal, what does Kant say is the only consistent alternative?

   Humean scepticism Spinozism Epicurean atomism Leibnizian monadology
5. 5. What did Francis I and Charles V both “wish”, in Kant’s example of a false harmony?

   Naples Peace The imperial crown Milan
6. 6. Whose question “Which deceives me, sight or touch?” does Kant borrow to describe the plight of universal empiricism?

   Berkeley’s idealist philosopher Descartes’s dreamer by the fire Hume’s sceptic in his study Cheselden’s blind patient
7. 7. What, according to Kant, is morality properly the doctrine of?

   How we may come to know God and his purposes How we should make ourselves happy in this life How society should distribute its wealth fairly How we should become worthy of happiness
8. 8. According to Kant, what did the Stoic say?

   Happiness is the reward God gives to virtue To be conscious of one’s virtue is happiness To be conscious that one’s maxims lead to happiness is virtue Virtue and happiness have nothing to do with each other
9. 9. What does Kant praise Epicurus for?

   His theory of the moral sense His proof of God’s existence His defence of duty against pleasure His consistency
10. 10. How does the order of the Analytic here differ from the first Critique?

    It begins with principles and ends with the senses It has no Analytic at all, only a Dialectic It begins with the senses and ends with principles It begins with God and ends with freedom
11. 11. After his apostrophe to Duty, what does Kant name as the root of its noble descent?

    The love of God that grace implants in the human heart The happiness of mankind Personality: freedom from the mechanism of nature The moral sense
12. 12. Why does the highest good require the immortality of the soul?

    Holiness needs an endless progress, so an endless existence The soul has been proved to be a simple, indestructible substance God punishes the wicked only after death Happiness is impossible in this life for anyone, however virtuous
13. 13. According to the Preface, why did Hume exempt mathematics from his empiricism?

    He held its principles to be analytical He thought it was merely conventional He thought it was derived from custom He considered it a branch of theology
14. 14. What does Kant compare with gold that is the same whether dug from the mountain or washed from the sand?

    Maxims, which all derive from reason Duties, which are all equally binding Moral laws, which are the same for all rational beings Pleasures, which for the hedonist differ only in amount
15. 15. To what does Kant compare separating the moral motive from the motive of advantage?

    A chemist precipitating lime by adding alkali to an acid solution A judge weighing evidence for and against An astronomer predicting an eclipse A geometer constructing a figure in pure intuition
16. 16. What does Kant say about a faith that is commanded?

    It is the highest form of piety It is the same as a postulate It is nonsense It is a duty of the citizen
17. 17. How does Kant judge the proposition that striving after happiness produces a virtuous mind?

    Absolutely false True but unprovable True of the Stoics only Only conditionally false
18. 18. Whom does Kant commend as a “true and consistent fatalist” for calling repentance absurd?

    Priestley Leibniz Mendelssohn Spinoza
19. 19. Before whom does Kant say his mind bows, whether he chooses or not?

    A plain man of upright character A victorious general A great lord of noble birth and high office A wealthy merchant
20. 20. Which two senses of “summum” does Kant distinguish?

    The natural and the supernatural The private and the public The eternal and the temporal The supreme (unconditioned) and the perfect (complete)
21. 21. Kant’s advice to be industrious and thrifty in youth so as not to want in old age is an example of what?

    A law of nature A postulate of pure practical reason A categorical imperative A practical precept, not a law
22. 22. Why does the maxim of denying an unrecorded deposit fail as a universal law?

    It would make the depositor unhappy It is forbidden by the civil law The owner’s heirs could prove the deposit As a law it would annihilate itself, since there would be no deposits
23. 23. According to the Conclusion, in what did the contemplation of the world end before method rescued it?

    Alchemy Astrology Scepticism Superstition and fanaticism
24. 24. Why can pure practical reason not be subordinated to speculative reason?

    Because all interest is ultimately practical Because speculative reason is merely empirical Because the Church requires it Because practical reason has intuitions of the supersensible
25. 25. What did the Stoic with gout refuse to admit?

    That pain was an evil That he deserved his suffering That gout was a disease That he was in pain
26. 26. In Kant’s table of material principles, whose name is attached to the moral feeling?

    Mandeville Montaigne Crusius Hutcheson
27. 27. What does Kant say merely psychological, comparative freedom would amount to?

    The freedom of a slave who chooses his master The freedom of a bird in a cage The freedom of a river within its banks The freedom of a turnspit
28. 28. What word does Kant offer for the satisfaction that accompanies the consciousness of virtue?

    Bliss Glory Self-contentment Pleasure
29. 29. In Kant’s example for a ten-year-old, whom is the honest man pressed to slander?

    Thomas More Mary, Queen of Scots Joan of Arc Anne Boleyn
30. 30. In the Preface, which concept does Kant call the keystone of the whole system of pure reason?

    God Happiness Freedom Immortality