Take Test: Week Four Pre-Test
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This “Pre-Test” is worth one point (weighted at .5% of your course grade), and you will get that point for answering the question: “This is the Week Four Pre-Test” as true. All of the other questions are worth 0 points. This is exactly the same test you will take at the end of the week as the Week One Post-Test: Reading Quiz, but in that version, each question will be worth .5 point, for a total of 10 points, weighted at 7.5% of your course grade.
Take this Pre-Test early in the week, before you have completed the required readings or even done any reading at all. The point is to use this as a study guide for the Post- Test version. Upon submitting the Pre-Test, you will be able to see only your score, not all of the correct answers. After taking the Post-Test at the end of the week, you will be able to see your entire corrected quiz once the test-access window has closed and everyone has submitted his or her completed Post-Test.
The questions in this quiz are based mainly on this week’s required readings; some basic information from the materials in the Week Four Argumentation learning modules may also be included. Although no quiz questions come directly from the weekly PowerPoint slide lectures, the Focus Lectures, or from the weekly videos and films, reviewing these will reinforce main points from the readings, cement your learning, and help prepare you for the quiz.
There is no time limit for this Pre-Test version of this week’s quiz. The main point of taking this quiz for early in the week is to provide a study guide for your reading and engagement with the other learning materials you will find in each week’s content. You may re-take this Pre-Test as many times as you wish, but you will earn only one point regardless of how many times you take it.
Important note: There is ONLY ONE correct answer for each question. The questions and answer choices are not necessarily direct quotes from the learning materials, so don’t waste time trying to search “key words” for the right answer.
Question Completion
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QUESTION 1
In his treatise on the art of persuasion, the Rhetoric, Aristotle’s distinguishes three types of classic argumentative strategies. They are __________, __________, and __________.
the constructive approach, the destructive approach, and the hybrid approach
the logical appeal, the ethical appeal, and the emotional appeal
the appeal to common sense, the appeal to irony, and the appeal to humor
the “go big or go home” style, the “whack-a-mole” style; and the “plain jane” style
the appeal to origins, the appeal to analogy, and the appeal to favorites
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QUESTION 2
Which of the following best characterizes the Ontological Argument for the existence of God?
If God exists, then God is perfect.
The nature of God is different fro different people of different cultures and religious backgrounds.
The world must have been created by the greatest possible being, and this being is God.
In the case of God, defined as the greatest of all possible beings, essence entails existence.
If God does not exist, then nothing would exist now.
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QUESTION 3
Which of the following represents a cogent objection to the Ontological argument?
It proves too much.
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To exist is not necessarily better than not existing.
Existence is not a property.
Essences cannot be properties.
Causes do not necessarily precede effects.
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QUESTION 4
Which of the following best characterizes the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God?
It is impossible for a series of causes which bring about any particular circumstance to go back infinitely in time; therefore, there had to be a first cause, which is God.
The universe cannot have been created by anything less perfect than God.
Even at the outmost reaches of the cosmos or universe, we are in the hands of the Creator.
The cosmos is an ordered universe; order is a kind of perfection; only God is perfect; therefore an ordered universe proves that God exists.
The world or cosmos, in all its magnificence, beauty, and complexity, could not have come about unless God exists.
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QUESTION 5
Which of the following represents a cogent objection to the Cosmological Argument?
No cosmos can ever be perfect in itself; therefore its creator, God, cannot be perfect either.
The world is filled with evil things and imperfections; how could God be the cause of these?
No cause of reality can itself be less real than the world itself.
If God created the universe, then time would have to be infinite.
It remains unclear why a series of finite causes cannot be infinite.
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QUESTION 6
Which of the following best characterizes the Teleological Argument for the existence of God?
The only explanation for miracles is divine intervention; that miracles happen proves that God exists.
The existence of God is commonly held to be a fact, a belief shared by the some of the greatest minds who have ever lived. It is unlikely that the majority of human thinkers could be wrong.
Without God, life would have no meaning; our lives do have meaning; therefore, God exists.
God and nature are one; we can prove the existence of nature through observation, therefore God exists.
The universe could not have come about by chance; only a divine, all-powerful being could have created a universe as complex and magnificent as ours.
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QUESTION 7
The problem of evil is the problem of
recognizing evil for what it truly is.
reconciling the apparent existence of evil with the existence of a benevolent, all-powerful God.
understanding that there is no such thing as evil in the eyes of God.
the existence of atheism in the world.
All of the above.
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QUESTION 8
Which of the following is used as a defense in response to the problem of evil?
Evil is only the absence of good.
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Evil is caused by humans through their free choice.
A world without evil would be ill-suited to the purpose of moral and spiritual development.
The existence of evil is necessary for the existence of good; one cannot exist without the other.
All of the above.
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QUESTION 9
What is an ad hominem fallacy?
This is a case in which someone argues for a claim based on an emotion that is irrelevant to the question at hand, such as pity or fear.
This fallacy occurs when someone uses an equivocal or ambiguous terms in one of its senses in the premises of an argument and in the other sense in the conclusion.
The fallacy is also known as the “slippery slope” fallacy–this is when someone arrives as a desired conclusion by making an illegitimate leap from an uncontroversial premise to additional related premises which do imply the conclusion but are not themselves justified.
Rather than evaluating and critiquing what an argument says, someone guilty of this fallacy attacks the person making the argument.
This common fallacy occurs when someone tries to justify a wrongdoing by pointing out that another person has done exactly the same thing and not been called out for it.
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QUESTION 10
Bertrand Russell claims that philosophical knowledge is not really a different kind of knowledge from that which concerns science; howev er, there is an essential difference that he says distinguishes the study of philosophy from scientific studies. Which of the following best
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characterizes this distinguishing feature?
philosophers prefer logic over math.
philosophers are not looking for real-world or practical results.
philosophers engage in critical examination and inquiry of basic principles at the outset.
philosophers stop their inquiries before any final answers are found–they do not want their questioning to end.
All of the above.
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QUESTION 11
According to James, what are our first and greatest commandments as would-be knowers?
We must never give up on the search for empirical proof in the case of momentous or forced options.
Suspend belief in all cases except for those religious beliefs that your heart compels you to follow.
Believe nothing and remain in suspense forever rather than believe in something on the basis of insufficient evidence.
We must follow our instincts and have faith in what we will to be true.
We must know truth and avoid error.
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QUESTION 12
William James argues that in a case in which the truth of a particular belief depends on personal action and desire, having faith in the truth of that belief even in the absence of confirming evidence
shows bad judgment and lack of a scientific attitude.
is something to be avoided by anyone purporting to escape dupery and false beliefs.
is a lawful and possibly an indispensable practice in life.
is childish and shows a reticence to accept true responsibility on the part of the rational knowledge-seeker.
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e. may be acceptable, but only in the case of religious belief.
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QUESTION 13
What does James say is an absolutely certain truth that even the most radical skeptic an confirm?
The appearance of consciousness in thought and experience really exists.
Systematic philosophies are superior to piecemeal knowledge claims.
Truth itself does not exist.
Belief and faith should have the same standards of evidence.
If God does not exist for me, it does not necessarily follow that God does not exist for you.
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QUESTION 14
Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher of the 19th century, known as the father of existentialism, was primarily concerned with
advanced principles of logic.
revitalizing the philosophical ideals of Socrates and classical Greece.
tearing down all religious principles in favor of the abyss call “atheism.”
grounding the truths of religion and philosophy in the subjective experience of the individual.
All of the above.
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QUESTION 15
Kierkegaard (through the words of his narrator, Johannes de silentio) contrasts the “knight of faith” with the “Knight of Infinite Resignation,” who he describes as easily discerned by his confidence, his boldness, and his strange yet superior character. Which of the following
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represents Kierkegaard’s example of the knight of faith?
someone who thinks he is swimming but is only “going through the motions”
a tragic, idealistic hero who accepts the misfortunes fate has dealt to him.
a petit bourgeois shopkeeper, or someone like a tax-collector or accountant.
a diligent maid who sits all day at her work and at night sings a beautiful song.
he who is praised by priests and poets.
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QUESTION 16
How does Kierkegaard define sin in Fear and Trembling?
Sin is when the individual sets himself apart as the particular above the universal.
Sin is when the individual forgets himself in the universal, which allows him to blame others when things go wrong.
Sin is when an individual fails to recognize his own being as a particular individual.
Sin is when one resigns oneself to fate and gives up on his heartfelt individual hopes and desires.
Sin is when an individual asserts himself in his particularity in direct opposition to the universal.
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QUESTION 17
What does Nietzsche pinpoint as the most “dangerous” of all errors made, which was an error of dogmatic philosophy?
The Christian dogma, promoted by priests, saints, and ascetics, that a man, Jesus of Nazareth, was also the Son of God, and hence an incarnation of God actually existing on Earth.
The Socratic dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living for a man, which created a sense of guilt and self-doubt in succeeding generations.
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Plato’s doctrine, set out in his Theory of Forms, which conceived of a universal Form of the Good that exists in a purely spiritual or nonphysical realm of being.
The rise of systematic philosophy that equates God with the universal Idea of Absolute Being, which created a wave of atheism than began overtaking most of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Cartesian insistence that there is always an “evil deceiver” ready to enter, in the form of skepticism or nihilism, into the mind and intentions of anyone who does not take the time to question his own beliefs.
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QUESTION 18
Nietzsche describes the belief that truth is worth more than appearances as
a firmly held and rationally justified intuition.
an unjustified assumption and a moral prejudice.
the most noble goal of a “free-spirited” philosophy.
essential for distinguishing true from false beliefs.
what gives us the confidence to accept that the world that is relevant to humans is not a fiction.
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QUESTION 19
Which of the following best characterizes Nietzsche’s account of piety?
a monstrosity produced by the fear of truth.
a quality possessed only by those of the highest rank who have a “life if God.”
that which strips away the surface features and cosmetic colors behind which human hide their true countenance.
a religious interpretation of existence that cures pessimism, suspicion, and fear.
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a sanctifying ulterior motive for living others; the motive being the promise of eternal life.
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QUESTION 20
What does Nietzsche mean by “the will to power”?
a product of refined atheism
the “democratic instinct” of the modern soul
a superflous telelogical principle of human behavior
the basic instinct for self-preservation
life itself–our entire life of all drives
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True
False
QUESTION 21
This is the Week Four Pre-Test.
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