Quiz: Ethics

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

1. Whom does Spinoza quote on ambition, observing that philosophers sign their names to books that disparage honour? Ovid Seneca Cicero Horace
2. What does Spinoza’s example of twenty men show? A definition does not fix how many things exist, so a plurality needs an external cause Men differ from one another in essence The number of men in the world is necessary and eternal, since it follows from God’s nature Human beings are substances in their own right
3. What does Spinoza call “bondage” at the start of Part IV? The obligation to obey the laws of a state Human infirmity in checking the emotions Subjection to the commands of a tyrant or a conqueror The mind’s dependence on the body’s senses
4. With what words does the Ethics end? God or Nature is all in all The free man thinks of nothing less than of death Freedom is the recognition of necessity All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare
5. In the note to Prop. I, what happens when we learn the sun’s true distance? The image of a near sun disappears at once We feel pain at our former ignorance The error is removed, but we still imagine the sun as near We can no longer see the sun as small
6. According to Definition VII, when is a thing called free? When no cause whatever, internal or external, determines its existence or action When it could have acted otherwise than it did, by a free choice of will When it acts with a definite end in view When it exists and acts by the necessity of its own nature alone
7. How does Spinoza define substance? Whatever has extension and can be measured That which is in itself and is conceived through itself That which the intellect perceives as constituting an essence The modifications of something else
8. What does Spinoza call the will of God when it is invoked to end a chain of “why” questions? The order of universal nature The highest perfection The sanctuary of ignorance The first and only free cause
9. How does Spinoza define sin in Note II to Prop. XXXVII? As any desire that arises from pain rather than pleasure As disobedience, which exists only in a state As any act that offends God’s nature or his commands As acting from inadequate ideas instead of adequate ones
10. According to V.3, when does an emotion that is a passion cease to be a passion? Only after the death of the body, when imagination ends When the will, by a firm decision, resolves to suppress it As soon as we form a clear and distinct idea of it When its external cause has been destroyed or removed
11. Which three primary emotions does Spinoza recognize? Wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sadness Love, hatred and the desire for esteem Desire, pleasure and pain Hope, fear and the love of glory
12. What does V.19 say about one who loves God? He will hate whoever does not love God He will love God less as he comes to understand more He must hope to be rewarded after death He cannot want God to love him in return
13. What example does Spinoza use to illustrate the three kinds of knowledge? Distinguishing a horse from a winged horse Proving that the angles of a triangle equal two right angles Finding a fourth proportional to three given numbers Measuring the distance of the sun
14. What does Prop. L say of pity in a man guided by reason? It is the same thing as approval It is the root of every virtue It may be excessive but is always good It is in itself bad and useless
15. What kind of cause of all things is God, according to Prop. XVIII? The final cause, for whose sake things exist The indwelling (immanent) cause The transient cause, acting from outside things The remote cause, acting through intermediaries

0 of 15 answered