Quiz: The Theory of Moral Sentiments

All 40 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which case does Smith use to show the difference between jurisprudence and casuistry?

   A contract made while drunk A debt owed to a dead creditor A promise extorted by a highwayman A lie told to save a friend
2. 2. What musical image does Smith use for the relation between the spectator’s feelings and the sufferer’s?

   They are like two instruments perfectly tuned alike They will never be unisons, but may be concords They are a discord that only time resolves They are a melody and its accompaniment
3. 3. What is Smith’s first objection to the view that we approve of virtue because of its utility?

   Utility is never perceived by ordinary people It would make praising a man like commending a chest of drawers It makes morality depend on the commands of God It cannot explain why we disapprove of cruelty
4. 4. According to Smith, what “great fallacy” lets Mandeville conclude that private vices are public benefits?

   Treating every passion as wholly vicious if it is so in any degree Denying that trade, industry and the refined arts are of any benefit to society Assuming that men are naturally benevolent Confusing natural philosophy with moral philosophy, as the Epicureans did
5. 5. What distinction does Smith draw in chapter II of Part III?

   Between justice and beneficence Between the natural passions and those acquired by habit and education Between the love of the rich and the love of the wise Between the love of praise and the love of praise-worthiness
6. 6. What social use does Smith find in our admiration of successful conquerors?

   It encourages young men to join the army It makes conquerors govern more justly It supplies poets and historians with great subjects for their epics and histories It teaches people to accept governments imposed by irresistible force
7. 7. Why does Smith say a prison is always a disagreeable object, though more useful than a palace?

   Prisons are seldom of any real use to the public, whatever their builders intend Each spectator fears that he himself, or someone dear to him, may one day be confined there The imagination sees the wretches confined, not the remote benefit to the public Prisons are usually built in a mean and ugly style, without regard to proportion
8. 8. What, according to Smith, really moves us in the tragedy of Philoctetes?

   His solitude His sore foot His hunger His quarrel with the gods
9. 9. What, according to Smith, is family affection “in reality”?

   A divinely implanted instinct Calculated self-interest Habitual sympathy The force of blood
10. 10. How does Smith explain the ancient philosophers’ concern with enduring misfortune and death?

    The frequent plagues and famines of the ancient world, which no physician’s art could relieve The influence of Egyptian religion, with its doctrine of the judgment of the dead Faction and war in the small Greek republics exposed every citizen to exile or death The tyranny of the Persian kings, whose subjects lived in constant fear of their power
11. 11. What three sources have been assigned, according to Smith, for the principle of approbation?

    Law, education and fashion Custom, utility and religion Self-love, reason and sentiment Fear, hope and habit
12. 12. In Part IV, what are the rich “led by an invisible hand” to do?

    Share out necessaries as an equal division of the earth would Lower the price of corn by opening their granaries in years of scarcity Invest their capital in domestic rather than foreign industry, for their own security Support the established church and its schools out of their rents
13. 13. What does Smith say are the only advantages we propose from “bettering our condition”?

    Security against future want Ease and freedom from labour Better food, clothing and shelter for our families To be observed, attended to and approved
14. 14. According to Smith’s advertisement to the 1790 edition, which part of the book is entirely new?

    Part V, on custom and fashion Part VI, on the character of virtue Part IV, on utility Part I, on the propriety of action
15. 15. Whose account of Cesare Borgia’s murders at Senigallia does Smith criticise for its coolness?

    Enrico Davila’s Guicciardini’s Machiavelli’s Paolo Giovio’s
16. 16. According to Smith, what would a human being raised in complete solitude be unable to think about?

    The external objects that pleased or hurt him His own bodily pains and pleasures The propriety or demerit of his own character and conduct The means of getting food and shelter
17. 17. According to Smith, what made languages simpler in their declensions and conjugations?

    The spread of Christianity The work of grammarians and academies in fixing the rules The mixture of nations by conquest or migration The invention of printing
18. 18. What institution does Smith say principally gave rise to books of casuistry?

    Auricular confession The courts of equity The universities’ disputations The Inquisition
19. 19. Whose saying that Carthage ought not to be destroyed does Smith call “the liberal expression of a more enlarged and enlightened mind”?

    Cicero Hannibal Scipio Nasica Cato the Elder
20. 20. According to Smith, by what did Louis XIV chiefly acquire his reputation as a model prince?

    His heroic valour at the head of his armies His inflexible and impartial justice His rank and graceful bearing His extensive knowledge of war, letters and the arts
21. 21. Why, in Smith’s account, do remote relations matter less in commercial countries than among pastoral clans?

    Churches discourage regard for kindred Commerce makes people more selfish by nature Inheritance law forbids the keeping together of large family estates The law protects everyone, so families need not keep together
22. 22. In Smith’s image of society as a building, what is beneficence?

    The main pillar that upholds it The foundation on which it stands The cement that binds it The ornament which embellishes it
23. 23. What does Smith call “the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments”?

    The disposition to admire the rich and great and to neglect the poor The influence of false religious systems The habit of judging actions by their consequences rather than their motives The selfish philosophy of Hobbes and Mandeville
24. 24. What does Smith’s example of shooting a bird and shooting a man show?

    That killing animals is as blameable as killing men That consequences alone determine merit That the law punishes intentions as severely as actions That the external bodily movement cannot be the ground of praise or blame
25. 25. Who, in Smith’s account, called the faculty of moral approval a “moral sense”?

    Hutcheson Cudworth Clarke Hobbes
26. 26. How, according to Smith, are the general rules of morality formed?

    By a special moral sense that perceives them directly, prior to any particular instance By reason, prior to any particular feeling From experience of what particular actions our moral faculties approve or condemn By the commands of the civil magistrate
27. 27. What, according to Smith, did Calas seem most to dread at his execution?

    Being refused the last rites of his church The cruelty of being broken alive on the wheel before the crowd The disgrace the false accusation would bring on his memory The loss of his property to the state
28. 28. In the example of the earthquake in China, what does Smith say prevents a man from sacrificing millions to save his little finger?

    The soft power of natural benevolence Fear of the law and of punishment Calculation of the commercial losses that Europe would suffer Reason, principle, conscience: the man within the breast
29. 29. Which kind of verb does Smith think was probably invented first?

    Impersonal verbs such as “it rains” Verbs in the first person The possessive verb “to have” The substantive verb “to be”
30. 30. On what instinct does Smith suggest the faculty of speech may be founded?

    Fear of solitude The need to coordinate the hunt and the defence of the tribe The love of imitation The desire to be believed and to persuade others
31. 31. How, according to Smith, do we form any idea of what a brother “upon the rack” suffers?

    By a moral sense distinct from reason By reasoning about the usefulness of compassion By the direct testimony of our senses By imagining ourselves in his situation
32. 32. What mistake does the “man of system” make, in Smith’s chessboard image?

    He refuses to hold any general idea of good policy, trusting only to circumstance He relies on foreign alliances and conquests rather than on domestic reform He forgets that each member of society has its own principle of motion He respects popular prejudices too much
33. 33. What example does Smith use to show that sympathy is not selfish?

    A judge pitying the condemned man he must sentence A soldier mourning an enemy A merchant pitying a rival ruined by bankruptcy A man sympathising with a woman in childbirth
34. 34. What does Smith call “the first and the principal object of prudence”?

    The acquisition of great wealth Bodily pleasure Security Public reputation
35. 35. Whom does Smith name as the first to attempt a system of the principles that should underlie the laws of all nations?

    Aristotle Justinian Pufendorf Grotius
36. 36. Which writer does Smith credit with showing that law cannot be the original source of right and wrong?

    Grotius Cudworth Hobbes Mandeville
37. 37. How does Smith define fashion?

    What everybody wears What is most useful and convenient What has been customary for the longest time What is worn by those of high rank or character
38. 38. How does Smith describe the Africans subjected to the slave trade?

    As nations of heroes As people corrupted by European luxury As savages without self-command As naturally fitted by constitution for labour in hot climates
39. 39. How does Smith distinguish the vain man from the proud man?

    The vain man never flatters others, being too sure of his own merit to need them The vain man is sullen and severe, and seldom condescends to court anyone’s favour The vain man does not truly believe in the superiority he claims The vain man despises the esteem of others and cares only for his own good opinion of himself
40. 40. To what does Smith compare the rules of justice?

    The rules critics lay down for elegance and sublimity The rules of a game of chance The rules of grammar The proverbial maxims of prudence