Philosophy

Study Questions

Chapter 7

1. Nietzsche announces the death of God in a parable about

a. A madman holding a lantern

b. A lonely prophet walking the earth

c. Jesus

d. A desert hermit living in a cave

2. The madman’s proclamation that “God is dead” refers to the fact that

a. He has found incontrovertible proof that God never really existed in the first place

b. God has temporarily withdrawn Himself from the world, only to return at the end of time

c. People have ceased to believe in God

d. None of the above

3. The madman finds the death of God to be so terrifying because

a. All of his contemporaries are grief-stricken at the sudden disappearance of God, and do not know how to recover from this frightening piece of news

b. Without God human life is devoid of any intrinsic purpose, value, and meaning

c. Both A and B

d. None of the above

4. Shakespeare’s Macbeth says that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” This would be an example of

a. Theism

b. Virtue ethics

c. Hedonism

d. Nihilism

5. “Life itself is essentially appropriation, injury, conquest of the strange and weak, suppression, severity…and at the least…exploitation.” Nietzsche here refers explicitly to

(HINT: see page 86, 89, paragraph 3!)

a. The Will to Power

b. Slave Morality

c. Judeo-Christianity

d. The German people

6. Each of the following is a characteristic of an aristocratic society EXCEPT:

(HINT: see pages 88-90!)

a. They come into being through conquest

b. Master Morality

c. They are the embodiment of will-to-power

d. They champion full equality among all members of society

7. Master morality is to slave morality as

(HINT: see pages 86-88, 90-91!)

a. nobility is to baseness

b. higher is to lower

c. affirmation of life is to negation of life

d. All of the above

8. The “good” of master morality is to the “good” of slave morality as

a. Noble is to despicable

b. Mediocrity is to excellence

c. Despicable is to noble

d. Rare is to exceptional

9. The “evil” of slave morality is to the “bad” of master morality as

a. cowardly is to heroic

b. lover is to beloved

c. self-glorification is to resentment

d. mediocrity is to excellence

10. The “good” of master morality is to the “evil” of slave morality as

a. resentment is to honor

b. hero is to coward

c. base is to noble

d. They are one and the same thing

11. According to Nietzsche, the modern liberal democratic ideal

a. encourages slavishness

b. is the only honorable value to be found in Judeo-Christianity

c. is embraced by master morality

d. is shunned by slave morality

12. Nihilism is the belief that

a. God is Good

b. Nothingness is an illusion of the mind

c. If we remain ignorant we will annihilate ourselves

d. The world is utterly meaningless