Practice Questions

for D. Palmer's Visions of Human Nature

Instructions: The self-assessment exercise for Chapter 10 is a combination of answering and asking questions. Part One contains five questions in the format you are used to from earlier chapters. Part Two sends you to the chapter report form you're all familiar with by now, and an input form where you must submit two questions of your own, to see if you know enough about this chapter to challenge your fellow students. Don't make your questions too hard, though, since I would like to use the questions I get from you for future classes. Please give me one multiple-choice question and one true-false question, taken from different parts of the chapter. Don't click the "SUBMIT" button at the bottom of this page until you have finished taking the test and are ready to submit your own test questions!

Chapter 10 - The Atheistic-Existentialist Vision of Human Nature

Part One, Answering the Questions:

1. Which of the following is not true about Sartre's conception of consciousness?
(a) Consciousness can be an object of the phenomenological description.
(b) Consciousness does not only mirror the external reality, but also creates an array of possibilities.
 (c) Consciousness is a property of the self.
(d) Consciousness is sometimes overwhelmed by freedom.
(e) None of the above
2. According to Sartre, freedom
(a) is the free will possessed by every human individual.
(b) results from our free choice.
(c) is one of the most desirable goals that humans are striving for.
(d) is something we cannot escape from.
(e) is identified with supreme happiness.
3. Which of the following illustrates Sartre's notion of "bad faith"?
(a) One blames her past for what she is today.
(b) One rejects to be responsible for the war which he was only forced to get involved in.
(c) One believes that human life is determined by a kind of divine providence.
(d) One believes that humans are not really free to make choices under many circumstances.
(e) All of the above.
4. Sartre claimed that "hell is other people" because
(a) he believed the mere presence of others robs one of one's freedom.
(b) he believed others are existentially inferior to oneself.
(c) he believed others are a part of our society.
(d) he believed others are merely objects like tables and chairs.
(e) None of the above.
5. According to the author, Sartre's vision of human beings is paradoxical because
(a) it claims the only essence of a human being is that she has no essence.
(b) it states that we are condemned to be free.
 (c) it claims every individual is absoutely free and yet admits that freedom has to be compromised.
 (d) it focuses on the passion for existence and yet admits the uselessness of this very passion.
(e) All of the above.
Part Two, Asking the Questions:. When you have finished the quiz, click the "Report" button below to fill in your multiple-choice and true/false questions and send a progess report to the instructor.

QUESTIONS AND REPORT FOR THIS CHAPTER