Quiz: On the Question of Dialectics

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

1. 1. Which simple relation does Marx’s Capital analyse first, according to Lenin?

   The wage contract The exchange of commodities The circulation of money The division of labour
2. 2. What image does Lenin use for philosophical idealism?

   A sterile flower that grows on the living tree of human knowledge A mask worn by the bourgeoisie to hide its exploitation of the workers A building raised in the air without any foundation in experience A disease of the brain that infects thinkers cut off from practice
3. 3. How does Lenin describe the path of human knowledge?

   A cycle that returns forever to the same point A straight line of steady progress A curve endlessly approximating a series of circles, a spiral A series of unconnected leaps
4. 4. What does Lenin call the essence (or one of the essentials) of dialectics?

   The transformation of quantity into quality, and of quality into quantity The negation of the negation The splitting of a whole and the cognition of its contradictory parts The priority of matter over consciousness
5. 5. According to Lenin, which is absolute: the unity of opposites or their struggle?

   Their unity alone Neither: both are relative Their struggle Both of them equally