Assignment: Nietzsche announces the death of God
Assignment: Nietzsche announces the death of God
1. Nietzsche announces the death of God in a parable about
a. A madman holding a lantern
b. A lonely prophet walking the earth
c. Jesus
d. A desert hermit living in a cave
2. The madman’s proclamation that “God is dead” refers to the fact that
a. He has found incontrovertible proof that God never really existed in the first place
b. God has temporarily withdrawn Himself from the world, only to return at the end of time
c. People have ceased to believe in God
d. None of the above
3. The madman finds the death of God to be so terrifying because
a. All of his contemporaries are grief-stricken at the sudden disappearance of God, and do not know how to recover from this frightening piece of news
b. Without God human life is devoid of any intrinsic purpose, value, and meaning
c. Both A and B
d. None of the above
4. Shakespeare’s Macbeth says that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” This would be an example of
a. Theism
b. Virtue ethics
c. Hedonism
d. Nihilism
5. “Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity…and at the least…exploitation.” Nietzsche here refers explicitly to
(HINT: see page 86, 89, paragraph 3!)
a. The Will to Power
b. Slave Morality
c. Judeo-Christianity
d. The German people
6. Each of the following is a characteristic of an aristocratic society EXCEPT:
(HINT: see pages 88-90!)
a. They come into being through conquest
b. Master Morality
c. They are the embodiment of will-to-power
d. They champion full equality among all members of society
7. Master morality is to slave morality as
(HINT: see pages 86-88, 90-91!)
a. nobility is to baseness
b. higher is to lower
c. affirmation of life is to negation of life
d. All of the above
8. The “good” of master morality is to the “good” of slave morality as
a. Noble is to despicable
b. Mediocrity is to excellence
c. Despicable is to noble
d. Rare is to exceptional
9. The “evil” of slave morality is to the “bad” of master morality as
a. cowardly is to heroic
b. lover is to beloved
c. self-glorification is to resentment
d. mediocrity is to excellence
10. The “good” of master morality is to the “evil” of slave morality as
a. resentment is to honor
b. hero is to coward
c. base is to noble
d. They are one and the same thing
11. According to Nietzsche, the modern liberal democratic ideal
a. encourages slavishness
b. is the only honorable value to be found in Judeo-Christianity
c. is embraced by master morality
d. is shunned by slave morality
12. Nihilism is the belief that
a. God is Good
b. Nothingness is an illusion of the mind
c. If we remain ignorant we will annihilate ourselves
d. The world is utterly meaningless
13. According to Nietzsche, the slavish individual expresses _________ for the noble types.
a. admiration
b. resentment
c. a feeling of kinship
d. affection
14. According to Nietzsche, slave morality originates from
(HINT: see page 87, 91! Assignment: Nietzsche announces the death of God)
a. a feeling of superiority
b. the need for slaves to survive
c. economic inequality
d. faith in a higher power
15. According to Nietzsche, master morality originates from
a. the aristocratic man’s spontaneous self-glorification
b. resentment toward other aristocratic men
c. the need to combat low self-esteem
d. a will to the denial of life
Chapter 8
1. Ortega can best be described as
a. a nihilist
b. an elitist
c. a feminist
d. an egalitarian
2. According to Ortega, the masses have begun to insinuate themselves in each of the following areas EXCEPT:
a. politics
b. education
c. the priesthood
d. the arts
3. According to Ortega, the phenomenon of the “masses” as a concentrated group gaining power and influence in all sectors of society
a. is nothing new
b. is consistent with the rise of fascism in Spain
c. is a recent phenomenon
d. is a cause for great celebration
4. Each of the following is true about the mass man EXCEPT:
a. he is the “average” man
b. he belongs exclusively to the working class
c. he is comfortable in his mediocrity
d. he is not particularly ambitious
5. Each of the following is true about the “select individual” EXCEPT:
a. he snobbishly believes that he is simply superior to everyone else
b. he sets very high standards for himself
c. he assigns himself great tasks
d. his presence is not limited to any particular socio-economic stratum of society
6. The select individual is to the mass man
a. as higher is to lower
b. as rare is to common
c. as noble is to vulgar
d. all of the above
7. Before the advent of the “crowd phenomenon,” artistic, political, and intellectual enterprises were directed by
(HINT: see page 101, paragraph 10! Assignment: Nietzsche announces the death of God)
a. anybody who wanted to take part
b. only those who were select individuals
c. only those who were qualified or at least claimed to be qualified
d. all of the above
8. According to Ortega, hyperdemocracy
a. is a threat to liberal democracy
b. is the mass man’s way of imposing itself on the rest of society
c. is the mass man’s way of stifling human excellence
d. all of the above
9. Each of the following is a characteristic of the “select individual” EXCEPT:
a. judges himself against a high standard.
b. complacency
c. qualified for intellectual, aesthetic, and political endeavors
d. runs the risk of being crushed under the weight of the mass
Chapter 9
1. Sartre’s phrase “existence precedes essence” means that
(HINT: see pages 107-108!)
a. God created man as a “blank slate” on which he can make his own essence.
b. Man created God in his own image
c. Man first has an essence, and then he confers on himself existence
d. Man exists in a godless universe, without any determinate nature or essence: he creates his own essence through his actions.
2. According to Sartre, when you choose how to live, you are choosing
(HINT: see pages 108-110!)
a. for your loved ones
b. for all mankind
c. for nobody but oneself
d. none of the above
3. In Sartre’s view, the existentialist finds the fact that God does not exist
(HINT: see pages 110-111!)
a. deeply distressing
b. liberating
c. insignificant
d. absurd to the point of being comical