European Humanities

Spring 2016

Mr. Spragins

Quiz on Modern Consciousness: Nietzsche, Freud, Darwin, Marx

1. Why did intellectuals in the late nineteenth century begin to doubt that history was naturally progressing towards a harmonious state?
2. Why did Nietzsche believe that Christian morality’s stress on love, compassion and pity was harmful to man?
3. Define Nietzsche’s conception of ‘the superman’ who would rescue European culture from Christianity.
4. According to Nietzsche, who wins the struggle for dominance in society? Why?
   
5. According to Freud, what forces drive human behavior?
6. How did Freud believe that we could probe the unconscious?
7. What is “the id” and what does it want?
8. Why did Freud believe that neurosis was unavoidable for civilized man?
   
9. Until Darwin published his theories, what did people believe was the origin of the various species on earth?
10. Define the argument according to design to prove the existence of God.
11. How does the natural selection of certain inherited traits lead to the development of whole new species?
12. What controversial aspects of Darwin’s theories do we still have trouble accepting?
13. From which philosophical movement do both liberalism and Marxism derive?
14. How do liberals and Marxists differ in their methods of achieving social justice?
15. Carefully explain how Marx uses the term “dialectical materialism” to describe his theory of historical progress.