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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How fast do philosophers hasten to the past according to the author?
(a) So fast that only philosophy's coattails remain in the present.
(b) So fast that none of philosophy remains in the present at all.
(c) So fast that it ends up in the future.
(d) Philosophy never hastens to the past.

2. What does Either/Or represent?
(a) Marital fidelity.
(b) The capital of Denmark.
(c) Choice in human life.
(d) An album of music.

3. What does the author say art and poetry do for us?
(a) Art and poetry amaze us with the complexity of their construction.
(b) Art and poetry torture us with their beauty.
(c) Art and poetry delight us in the moment of consummation.
(d) Art and poetry bore most of us to tears.

4. What is the secret horror of every person who lives aethically, according to the author?
(a) Living freely.
(b) Sinning.
(c) Tripping.
(d) Despairing.

5. What does the author say happens to people who deceive others for an extended period?
(a) Such people become unable to show their true natures.
(b) Such people live ever more happily.
(c) Such people get elected to public office.
(d) Such people become dim-witted.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the author how does philosophy view history?

2. Why do the author's two Englishmen travel to Arabia?

3. The author asserts that making a good choice does not depend so much on deliberation as on what?

4. What does the author call the young man's condition of despair?

5. The author claims there is the deepest relationship between what two things?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are somethings the author writes might be said to a depressed young man?

2. What does the author dislike about philosophy?

3. What does the author say is more important than choosing the right thing?

4. What advice does the author give the young man about despair?

5. What does the author say the young man proposes is the definition of a hero? What does the author encourage the young man to suppose instead?

6. What does the author say to despotic husbands who utterly dominate their wives?

7. Describe the folktale about Roland's three squires.

8. What are the advantages of the ethical theory of talent as opposed to the aesthetic theory of talent?

9. What does the author write about "the Moment"?

10. How does the author define philosophy and what does he appreciate about it?

(see the answer keys)

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