Revolution and Enlightenment
“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.”Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792
1. According to the passage, with what are “soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste” synonymous?
a.strength
b.high social class
c.weakness
d.low social class
“As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
2. According to the passage, how does a person increase the public wealth?
a.by pursuing his own interests
b.by voting for government regulation
c.by investing abroad
d.by sharing his wealth with his fellow-citizens
3. In this passage, what is the function of the “invisible hand”?
a. men who manipulate the stock marker behind the scenes
b. secret societies that make policy decisions for governments
c. secret societies attempting to create a world government
d. It makes it so that men who pursue their own economic interests end up helping all of society.
“Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience . . . . Our observation, employed either about external sensible objects or about the internal operations of our minds perceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which supplies our understanding with all the materials of thinking.”John Locke, “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”
4. According to the passage, how does the mind acquire knowledge?
a.other people
b.God
c.nature
d.experience
WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s GOD entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.The Declaration of Independence
5. The Declaration of Independence illustrates what philosophical school of thought?
a.Realism
b.Absolutism
c.Enlightenment
d.Heliocentrism
“I say, there is scarce any city or borough in Europe, where blood has not been spilled for religious quarrels; I say, that the human species has been perceptibly diminished, because women and girls were massacred as well as men. I say that Europe would have a third larger population if there had been no theological disputes. In fine, I say, that so far from forgetting these abominable times, we should frequently take a view of them, to inspire eternal horror for them . . . . It is our age to make amends by toleration, for this long collection of crimes, which has taken place through the lack of toleration during sixteen barbarous centuries.”Voltaire, quoted in Absolutism to Revolution 1648–1848, Herbert H. Rowen, ed., 1963h
6. What major theme of the Enlightenment do the ideas presented in this passage express?
- Religious tolerance
- Capital Punishment
- Population control
- Popular Sovereignty
“Now let us review the observation made during the past two months . . . . Let us speak first of that surface of the Moon which faces us. For greater clarity I distinguish two parts of this surface, a lighter and a darker . . . . [T]he darker part makes the moon appear covered with spots . . . . From observation of these spots . . . I have been led to the opinion and conviction that the surface of the moon is not smooth, uniform and precisely spherical as a great number of philosophers believe it and the other heavenly bodies to be, but is uneven, rough, and full of cavities, not unlike the face of . . . Earth, relieved by chains of mountains and deep valleys.”Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, Stillman Drake, ed., 1957
7. According to the passage, the surface of the moon is similar to that of which heavenly body?
a.Sun
b.Jupiter
c.Mars
d.Earth
“[The services a monarch must provide for his people] consisted in the maintenance of the laws; a strict execution of justice; . . . and defending the state against its enemies. It is the duty of this magistrate to pay attention to agriculture; it should be his care that provisions for the nation should be in abundance, and that commerce and industry should be encouraged. He is a perpetual sentinel, who must watch the acts and the conduct of the enemies of the state . . . . If he be the first general, the first minister of the realm, it is not that he should remain the shadow of authority, but that he should fulfill the duties of such titles. He is only the first servant of the state.”The Western Tradition, Eugene Weber, 1972
8. What is the best definition of the word sentinel from this passage?
a.guard
b.king
c.judge
d.soldier
9. According to the passage, who is the first servant of the state?
a.the citizen
b. the monarch
c.the church
d. the soldier
Wherever therefore any number of men are so united into one society, as to quit every one his executive power of the law of nature, and to resign it to the public, there and there only is a political, or civil society... For hereby he authorizes the society, or which is all one, the legislative thereof to make laws for him as the public good of the society shall require;... And this puts men out of a state of nature into that of a commonwealth."– John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
10. According to the passage, man gives up part of ______to be part of a civil society.
a. life
b. individual wealth
c. individual authority
d. personal property
11. ____ was the first to argue that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.
a.Ptolemy
b.Johannes Kepler
c.Nicholas Copernicus
d.Martin Luther
12. Francis Bacon, an English philosopher, believed scientists should
a.use inductive reasoning.
b.leave nature alone.
c.rely solely on the Bible.
d.use chance to study nature.
13. John Locke’s ideas suggest that people were
a.born either good or evil.
b.naturally inclined to be stupid.
c.inherently self-centered.
d.molded by their experiences.
14. To Voltaire and many other philosophes, the universe was
a.a divine creation.
b.like a clock.
c.unknowable at all.
d.constructed like a flower.
15. ___ composed The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, and Don Giovanni, three of the world’s greatest operas.
a.Franz Joseph Haydnc.Johann Sebastian Bach
b.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartd.George Frederick Handel
16. Adam Smith believed in laissez-faire, by which he meant that
a.the assets of the rich should be taken.
b.the state should not regulate the economy.
c.those who are able to work should help to support those who cannot work.
d.the state should monitor the economy and impose regulations to keep it healthy.
17. Isaac Newton’s universal law of gravitation
a.was denounced by the Anglican Church as the work of the Devil.
b.refuted Galileo Galilei’s theory of universal movement.
c.was laughed at by Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus.
d.showed how one law could explain all motion in the universe.
18. In Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s concept of a social contract,
a.an entire society agrees to be governed by its general will.
b.punishments are not exercises in brutality, and capital punishment is discarded.
c.the government should not interfere in economic matters.
d.women should be granted rights nearly equal to those of men.
19.As a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1763,
a.France gained control of Great Britain’s holdings in India in exchange for French territories in North America.
b.Austria regained control of Silesia from Prussia.
c.Maria Theresa of Austria was able to effect a diplomatic revolution and win France as an ally.
d.Great Britain gained control of India and North America, making it the world’s greatest colonial power.
20. Galileo’s observations seemed to indicate that
a.Copernicus and Kepler were wrong in their beliefs about the moon goddess.
b.the Catholic Church’s beliefs about the heavens were correct.
c.Plato was correct about the way the planets were arranged.
d.the heavenly bodies were composed of material substance just like Earth, not pure orbs of light.
21. __ wrote On The Fabric of the Human Body, which presented a careful and accurate examination of human anatomy.
a.Shakespeare
b.William Harvey
c.Andreas Vesalius
d.Robert Boyle