Quiz: On Liberty

11 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. According to “the Calvinistic theory” as Mill describes it, what is the one great offence of man? Love of money Pride of intellect Self-will Idleness
2. Why does Mill hold that a contract to sell oneself as a slave should be void? Scripture and the common law both forbid a man to sell his own body to another It injures third parties, since slavery lowers the wages of all free labour In abdicating his liberty he defeats the reason for leaving him free All contracts may be dissolved at the will of either party at any time they choose
3. Of what was Socrates convicted, as Mill reports? Impiety and immorality, as a “corrupter of youth” Theft from the temple treasury Treason and bribery Desertion in war
4. According to Mill, what exposed the weakness of the idea that a people need no protection against their own power? The rise of a large democratic republic open to observation The defeat of the Chartists in 1848 The founding of the Roman republic The restoration of the French monarchy in 1815
5. To what does Mill compare human nature, as opposed to a machine? A garden wall A tree A flock of sheep A river
6. Which of these is not one of Mill’s four grounds for freedom of opinion? Suppressed opinions always triumph, so persecution is useless An unchallenged truth is held as a prejudice and its meaning fades A false opinion may contain a portion of truth that the received one lacks The silenced opinion may be true
7. What is the sole end, according to Mill’s principle, for which mankind may interfere with anyone’s liberty of action? The preservation of established religion The person’s own moral improvement The greatest happiness of the majority Self-protection
8. Mill says George Barnwell would equally have been hanged if he had murdered his uncle for what purpose? In self-defence To pay his gambling and tavern debts To inherit his uncle’s estate and lands To set himself up in business
9. Why does Mill call Marcus Aurelius’s persecution of Christianity “one of the most tragical facts in all history”? He persecuted it out of personal cruelty and vanity, like Nero and Domitian before him He secretly believed it true but feared the anger of the Roman populace and the army The Senate and the priests forced him into it against his will and his Stoic doubts The wisest, gentlest ruler persecuted it from duty, thinking it would dissolve society
10. What practice of Christians does Mill say most envenoms the hatred of “Mahomedans” against them? Worshipping images Working on Fridays Drinking wine Eating pork
11. What sentence did the Cornish man in Mill’s 1857 example receive? Exclusion from juries and from voting for the rest of his life Death, commuted to transportation for life to Australia Twenty-one months’ imprisonment for words against Christianity A fine of twenty-one pounds and the loss of his trade

0 of 11 answered