Deck 17: The Eighteenth Century: an Age of Enlightenment

Question 1

According to The Social Contract, how is the "general will" best described?

A)It was a social consensus to which the individual must bow.
B)It was an unconscious force that only the wealthy can escape.
C)It was far less important to follow than the specific human will.

Answer 1

It was a social consensus to which the individual must bow.

Question 2

Voltaire was best known for his criticism of which institution or practice?

A)The German monarchical system
B)The separation of church and state
C)Religious intolerance

Answer 2

Religious intolerance

Question 3

The author of The Progress of the Human Mind and who became a victim of the French Revolution was who among the following?

A)Condorcet
B)Holbach
C)Quesnay

Answer 3

Condorcet

Question 4

Voltaire was the author of which of the following important volumes with relevance today?

A)Treatise on Toleration
B)Persian Letters
C)The Spirit of the Laws

Question 5

How is Montesquieu's Persian Letters best described?

A)It expressed his admiration of Islam and the East.
B)It was a translation of a great literary work from ancient Persia.
C)It was a method that allowed him to criticize the Catholic Church and the French monarchy.

Question 6

How is Deism best described?

A)Religion is fairy tales to frighten the superstitious
B)If God exists, he has no interest in the world
C)God created the universe but does not actively run it

Question 7

What was Diderot's purpose in writing the Encyclopedia?

A)To get the uneducated masses to respect authority
B)To change the general way of thinking
C)To dispute the claims of science

Question 8

Rousseau's influential novel, Émile, deals with which of the following key Enlightenment themes?

A)Proper child rearing and human education
B)The best roles for women in making modern society
C)The necessity of church marriage and reform of church teaching on this sacrament

Question 9

Who among the following took the position that individuals would be forced to be free if they did not obey the general will?

A)Baron Paul d'Holbach
B)Jean-Jacques Rousseau
C)Denis Diderot

Question 10

How is the Encyclopedia best described?

A)It was a major tool in the attack of conservatives on Enlightenment ideals.
B)It was a 28-volume compilation of articles by many influential philosophers.
C)It sought to expose the dangers of religious toleration.

Question 11

The belief in natural laws underlying all areas of human life led to which of the following?

A)Scientific theism
B)The emergence of the "science of man"
C)Intellectual stagnation

Question 12

Which of the following statements concerning salons is NOT true?

A)Salons were literary-minded gatherings where advanced ideas were discussed.
B)As hostesses of salons, women were able to influence artistic and literary taste.
C)Salons were frequented by wealthy bourgeoisie but shunned by aristocrats and government officials.

Question 13

The Rococo artist Antoine Watteau emphasized which of the following?

A)The pleasure and joy of aristocratic life
B)The simplicity of rural life
C)The desperate poverty of cities

Question 14

How is the Baroque-Rococo artistic style of the eighteenth century best described?

A)It was confined to France and did not spread much outside of Paris.
B)It expressed in the architectural works of Baron d'Holbach.
C)It is evident in the masterpieces of Balthasar Neumann.

Question 15

Adam Smith believed that government should strive for which of the following goals?

A)It should not interfere in people's economic decisions.
B)It should set prices across the board to maintain stability.
C)It should encourage people to share and help each other.

Question 16

Enlightened thinkers can be understood as secularists because they strongly recommended which of the following?

A)The application of the scientific method to the analysis and understanding of all aspects of human life
B)The rational dismantling of all churches and their competing but empty ideologies
C)A complete stop to all efforts at the reform of justice

Question 17

Who among the following was the leader of the Physiocrats and their advocacy of natural economic laws?

A)Denis Diderot
B)Adam Smith
C)François Quesnay

Question 18

The strongest statement and vindication of women's rights during the Enlightenment was made by who among the following?

A)Mary Wollstonecraft
B)Beatrice Williams
C)Mary Astell

Question 19

European intellectual life in the eighteenth century was marked by which of the following?

A)Growing anti-Semitism and sharper persecution of minorities in universities
B)The emergence of secularization and a search to find the natural laws governing human life
C)Sophism and the mockery of past traditions

Question 20

According to Rousseau, which of the following was the source of inequality and the chief cause of crimes?

A)Divine-right monarchy
B)Private property
C)Religion

Question 21

Which of the following is true of Johann Sebastian Bach?

A)He was best known for his cantatas and motets.
B)He became a close German confidant of Voltaire.
C)He produced religious music as a way to worship God.

Question 22

What was the role of social gatherings in spreading Enlightenment values?

Question 23

What new thoughts emerged about human development in this time?

Question 24

Published travel accounts of different cultures resulted in which of the following?

A)They led to an image of "natural man" who lived a much harder life than many Europeans.
B)They led to the dismissal of the idea of the "noble savage."
C)They led to the development of cultural relativism.

Question 25

Eighteenth-century writers, especially in England, used which of the following new forms of literary expression to attack the hypocrisies of the era and provide sentimental entertainment to growing numbers of readers?

A)Epic poetry
B)Autobiography
C)Novels

Question 26

Who was the eighteenth-century composer considered to be the most innovative and who composed the opera The Marriage of Figaro?

A)Mozart
B)Handel
C)Verdi

Question 27

By the end of the eighteenth century, which of the following trends was discernible?

A)A trend away from imprisonment and toward capital punishment began.
B)Corporal and capital punishment were on the decline.
C)Criminal punishments became more cruel as violent crimes increased.

Question 28

How did European travels shape European ideas about humanity?

Question 29

How did the popularization of science have an effect elsewhere?

Question 30

How is the religious movement that came to be known as Methodism best described?

A)It became a separate and independent sect from the Anglican Church.
B)It was particularly popular in the Holy Roman Empire.
C)It was critical of emotional mysticism and religious enthusiasm.

Question 31

The growth of reading and publishing in the eighteenth century was aided and characterized by the development of which of the following?

A)Private tutors
B)Magazines for the general public
C)Compulsory education for the general public

Question 32

Who among the following advocated a less brutal approach to justice and punishment in the eighteenth century?

A)Voltaire
B)Diderot
C)Beccaria

Question 33

European music in the later eighteenth century is best associated with who among the following?

A)Haydn and Mozart, who shifted the musical center from Italy and Germany to the Austrian Empire
B)Handel, the most religiously inspired of the period's composers
C)The strictly elitist, aristocratic works of Haydn

Question 34

High culture in eighteenth-century Europe was characterized by which of the following?

A)The enormous impact of the publishing industry
B)The decline of French as an international language
C)The decline of the magazine with the rise of the novel

Question 35

How are the works of Fontenelle best described?

A)They popularized a growing skepticism toward the claims of religion.
B)They portrayed churches as allies of scientific progress.
C)They discouraged amateur conversations about scientific matters.

Question 36

Describe Montesquieu's main arguments.

Question 37

In reaction to significant elements of rationalism and deism, in which two countries did some ordinary Protestant churchgoers choose new religious movements?

A)Scotland and Ireland
B)France and Austria
C)England and Germany

Question 38

How is the punishment of crime in the eighteenth century best described?

A)Carried out by mobs after the criminals were charged in court
B)Less severe than the crime would merit
C)Public and very gruesome

Question 39

Who among the following was the English writer who argued in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies that women should become better educated?

A)Anne Stuart
B)Mary Astell
C)Mary Wollstonecraft

Question 40

Describe Voltaire's main arguments.

Question 41

Why did elites come to disdain "popular culture" during the Enlightenment?

Question 42

Describe popular culture in Europe during the Enlightenment.

Question 43

Why did Voltaire support the idea of a free press and religious toleration? How were his ideas representative (or not)of his context?

Question 44

Describe Hume's main arguments.

Question 45

Describe the differences between the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.

Question 46

How did Adam Smith arrive at the conclusion that government should stay out of regulating economic activities as much as possible? What are his fundamental premises and how are they shaped by the context in which he wrote?

Question 47

Describe Smith's main arguments.

Question 48

Why did so many philosophers agree that freedom was the essential condition for Enlightenment?

Question 49

What is deism?

Question 50

How were men's and women's experiences of the Enlightenment different?

Question 51

What is a salon, and why were they important to the spread of Enlightenment?

Question 52

What is Astell's main argument against excluding women from Enlightenment?

Question 53

Describe Rousseau's main arguments.

Question 54

How are the French philosophers best described?

A)They flourished in an atmosphere of government support.
B)They sought no extension of Enlightenment to other disciplines.
C)They were literate intellectuals who meant to change the world through reason and rationality.

Question 55

Why and among whom did the novel rise in popularity during the Enlightenment?

Question 56

Describe Diderot's main arguments.

Question 57

How did the relationship between the church and European states change by the 1700s?

Question 58

John Locke's tabula rasa refers to which of the following?

A)A metaphorical temple of reason in which all people should worship to make the world better
B)A blank mind that could be filled with good or evil ideas through education
C)The image of God and its reflection in human beings

Question 59

Describe the neoclassical movement.

Question 60

How had popular religion changed by the 1700s?

Question 61

How did the experience of Enlightenment differ across social classes? Which form of creative expression (architecture, music, or literature)was most likely to reach ordinary people? Why?

Question 62

How had the fortunes of the church changed by the 1700s. To what extent were these changes caused by Enlightenment, and to what extent were they caused by older problems and conflicts?

Question 63

Describe the new directions taken by various new Protestant movements. What was the goal of those changes, and what was the outcome?

Question 64

Which of the following cities was the unofficial "capital" of the Enlightenment?

A)Geneva
B)Paris
C)London

Question 65

Describe multiple means through which Enlightenment was spread. Which was the most effective? Why?

Question 66

Did the Enlightenment create better European societies? Why or why not?

Question 67

How are Isaac Newton's and John Locke's contributions to the Enlightenment best described?

A)They created two antagonistic religious systems of thought that split the movement in half.
B)They provided inspiration for the Enlightenment by arguing that through rational reasoning and the acquisition of knowledge one could discover natural laws governing all aspects of human society.
C)They claimed that mathematics and science would bring about the cure for the evils of society but only very slowly.

Question 68

In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu argued that the best political system in a modern society is one that has which feature?

A)The legislature exercises absolute and unlimited power.
B)The king exercises absolute and unlimited power.
C)Power is divided between the three branches of government.

Question 69

Did the Enlightenment improve or worsen the role and status of women in European society? Why?

Question 70

The French philosophers mostly included people from which of the following social groupings?

A)The nobility and the middle class
B)The lower class and the lower middle class
C)Aristocracy and nobility