Mid-Year Exam 2011-12

European Humanities

Mr. Spragins

Part One: Comprehensive Grammar/Vocabulary Test (20 points) (20 minutes)

(This section of the exam will be closed book.)

Part Two: Essay Section (80 points) (90 minutes)

(The rest of the exam will be open book, open notes. The only rule is you have to write your own essay in your own words and complete it during the time allotted for the exam.)

Take care to write the very best essays that you are capable of producing. Make sure that your essay presents a clear thesis statement, that you organize it into a persuasive argument, and that you find good, specific evidence from the texts to support your points. Quote the text!

1. Essay on Voltaire’s Candide (40 points) (45 minutes)

Explain the philosophical purpose of Voltaire’s satire on the moral beliefs of the Enlightenment in Candide.

As you generate a thesis statement about Voltaire’s point, see if you can answer the following questions:

• What is his judgment of the philosophical belief in optimistic determinism?
• How does Voltaire account for the existence of evil in the world, both human vice and natural evil?
• What is his vision of human nature? Good or Evil?
• To what degree can we reform society and redress the great problems that face humanity?

2. The Cosmic Salon (40 Points 45 minutes)

The second essay question on the exam will ask you to choose a group artists, philosophers, and characters from the literature that we have studied this semester and have them respond to philosophical questions raised by Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Each of the thinkers will evaluate Shakespeare’s depiction of human nature in Macbeth and respond to Shakespeare’s understanding of the problem of evil in the world.

Below you will find a list of artists, philosophers and characters arranged in groups according to historical period (Pre-Socratic Greek, Periclean Athens, The Roman World: Stoicism, Judaism and Christianity, The Medieval World, The Renaissance, and The Enlightenment. You will need to choose a number of them to participate in your cosmic salon discussion of Macbeth.

See Responses to The Problem of Evil.

Choose two from each of the major groups in the following list:

Pre-Socratic Greece: Homer Achilles Odysseus Dionysus The Cyclops Thales Anaximander Anaximenes Heraclitus Pythagoras Parmenides Zeno Empedocles Anaxagoras Leucippus Democritus The Golden Age of Athens: The Sophists: Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias Socrates Plato Aristotle Themistocles Thucydides Thespis Sophocles Oedipus Teiresias The Sphinx

The Roman World: Moses Yahweh Adam and Eve Noah Job Jesus Saint Peter Saint Paul Saint Augustine Livy Lucretius Cicero Marcus Aurelius The Medieval World: Beowulf Grendel Chaucer The Knight The Wife of Bath The Prioresse The Monk The Friar The Merchant The Parson The Miller The Reeve The Summoner The Pardoner

The Renaissance World: Ptolemy Machiavelli Copernicus Kepler Galileo Bacon Descartes Spinoza Pico della Mirandola Shakespeare Macbeth Lady Macbeth The Witches The Enlightenment World: Hobbes Newton Locke Leibniz Malagrida Wesley Voltaire on Newton Pope Voltaire on Lisbon Rousseau (More on Rousseau) Hume (More on Hume) d'Holbach Jaques the Anabaptist Candide Pangloss Voltaire