Deck 4: The Beginnings of Modern Science and Philosophy

Question 1

Which of the following did not characterize Renaissance humanism?

A)great concern with human potential and achievement
B)an interest in how people think,behave,and feel
C)an intense interest in the past
D)a deep appreciation of Aristotelianism

Answer 1

a deep appreciation of Aristotelianism

Question 2

Petrarch believed all of the following except:

A)the human spirit should be freed from medieval traditions
B)religion should be like that described by St.Augustine
C)life in this world is at least as important as life after death
D)Scholasticism contained most of the solutions to human problems

Answer 2

Scholasticism contained most of the solutions to human problems

Question 3

Among the Renaissance humanists,Skepticism was most clearly demonstrated by:

A)Montaigne
B)Pico
C)Petrarch
D)Luther

Answer 3

Montaigne

Question 4

Luther criticized the Church of his day because it:

A)did not sell indulgences
B)drifted too far from the teachings of Jesus and the Bible
C)did not engage in enough ritual and ceremony
D)did not follow Aristotle's teachings

Question 5

Which of the following was true of the Ptolemaic system?

A)it was unable to make accurate astronomical predictions
B)it was unable to make predictions in accordance with the testimony of the senses
C)it was congenial to Christian theology because it gave humans a central place in the universe
D)it accepted the heliocentric theory

Question 6

Both Bacon and Descartes sought to develop a system of thought that:

A)was compatible with Scripture
B)was compatible with classical Greek philosophy
C)questioned the authority of the church
D)was impervious to the doubts of the Skeptics

Question 7

Pico argued that:

A)God had granted humans a unique position in the universe.
B)humans are not capable of change.
C)humans do not have freedom to choose from a variety of lifestyles.
D)individuals with differing viewpoints cannot be tolerateD.

Question 8

The Renaissance humanists wanted religion to be:

A)organized around Aristotle's philosophy
B)organized around Plato's philosophy
C)as Aquinas had described it
D)personal

Question 9

For Luther,the major reason for the downfall of Catholicism was:

A)it did not follow the teachings of St.Aquinas closely enough
B)it did not have enough formal rituals
C)its assimilation of Aristotle's philosophy
D)too much emphasis was being placed on the New Testament

Question 10

Pico believed all of the following except:

A)humans are perfect and thus have no need to change
B)if properly understood,all philosophical viewpoints were essentially in agreement
C)all human works should be respected
D)there could not be peace among philosophical and religious rivals

Question 11

Luther believed the reason evil exists is:

A)because humans have the ability to choose evil
B)because Satan created evil
C)because it is part of human nature
D)unfathomable to humans;only God knows

Question 12

Martin Luther followed whose lead in criticizing the Catholic Church?

A)Pico
B)Petrarch
C)St.Thomas Aquinas
D)Erasmus

Question 13

During the Renaissance,Europe gradually switched from being ____-centered to being ____-centered.

A)God;human
B)human;God
C)individual;society
D)culture;society

Question 14

According to Erasmus,among those listed below,who was least likely to speak the truth?

A)fools
B)children
C)drunkards
D)philosophers

Question 15

Which of the following was not a factor in the acceptance of objective study of nature due to the weakening of church authority?

A)the explorations of Marco Polo
B)the invention of metal moveable type
C)Martin Luther's challenge to Catholicism
D)the embracing of Aristotle's empirical views

Question 16

According to Renaissance humanists,Aristotle's philosophy had:

A)become too influential within the church
B)been almost completely overlooked
C)made religion too individualistic
D)renewed interest in the occult

Question 17

Which of the following was a negative aspect of Protestantism?

A)It embraced the philosophies of Aristotle.
B)It insisted on accepting the existence of God on faith alone;trying to understand God through reason was foolish.
C)It accepted reason and the observation of nature as ways of knowing God.
D)As a religion,it was very forgiving of its followers' sins.

Question 18

Who was the astronomer who suggested that the earth revolves around the sun 1700 years before Copernicus?

A)Ptolemy
B)Aristarchus of Samos
C)Aristotle
D)Bruno

Question 19

All of the following characterized the Renaissance except:

A)great interest in human potential
B)great human achievement
C)persecution,superstition,torture,and witch hunting and execution
D)the humane treatment of abnormal individuals

Question 20

Luther's new religious movement that denied the authority of the pope was called:

A)Protestantism
B)Reformation
C)Puritanism
D)Catholicism

Question 21

The church responded to Galileo's scientific achievements by:

A)making him a saint
B)giving him his own laboratory
C)making him recant his scientific conclusions
D)burning him at the stake

Question 22

Because of his ideas Giordano Bruno was:

A)given a position of influence within the church hierarchy
B)burned at the stake
C)given mild reprimands by church officials
D)encouraged to convert from Catholicism to Protestantism

Question 23

Who were among the first to accept Copernicus's heliocentric theory?

A)the Scholastics
B)those mathematicians who embraced Pythagorean-Platonic philosophy
C)the Renaissance humanists
D)those embracing nonmathematical Aristotelian philosophy

Question 24

According to Galileo,all of the following were true of secondary qualities except:

A)they correspond to nothing that exists in the physical world
B)they are merely names we give to certain psychological experiences
C)they are irrelevant to an understanding of the physical world
D)they are the only qualities of which we can be certain

Question 25

Newton believed all of the following except:

A)explanations of natural events must always be as simple as possible
B)natural events can never be explained by postulating properties inherent to them
C)classification is not explanation
D)because God created the universe,physical events can be understood in terms of their purpose

Question 26

All of the following were reasons that Kepler accepted Copernicus's heliocentric theory except:

A)Kepler was a Platonist seeking mathematical simplicity and harmony
B)Kepler was a sun worshipper
C)Kepler believed that Copernicus' theory gave humans a favored place in the universe
D)Kepler believed that Copernicus' theory gave the sun a more favorable position in the universe

Question 27

According to the Deist:

A)God created the universe but thereafter had no involvement with it
B)religious revelation is an important source of information concerning the workings of the universe
C)the laws governing the universe can never be known with certainty because God may change His mind about how things work
D)God does not exist

Question 28

According to Bacon,scientific theory:

A)acted as an effective guide for scientific research
B)biased observations
C)was useful only if it was nonmathematical
D)was useful only if it yielded useful deductions

Question 29

Galileo used experiments to do all of the following except:

A)demonstrate the existence of scientific laws
B)convince Skeptics of the existence of scientific laws
C)show the uselessness of mathematics in science
D)show that essences are important for explanations

Question 30

Newton believed all of the following about the universe except:

A)it was a machine created by God
B)it operated according to principles that humans could discover
C)it was too complex to be understood by anyone but God
D)it operated according to principles that could be expressed in precise mathematical terms

Question 31

Copernicus argued that:

A)there are many life-supporting solar systems in the universe
B)the sun revolves around the earth
C)the earth revolves around the sun (heliocentric theory)
D)neither the geocentric theory nor the heliocentric theory was true

Question 32

According to Bacon,science should utilize:

A)bold theories
B)hypotheses
C)mathematical analyses
D)only the direct observation of nature

Question 33

Newton believed that his work:

A)revealed nature's secrets
B)proved that there was no God
C)showed that the universe was anything but a machine
D)showed that a mathematical analysis of the material world was impossible

Question 34

According to Galileo,secondary qualities:

A)were inferior to primary qualities
B)could not be measured objectively
C)could not be known with certainty
D)all of these choices

Question 35

Regarding realism versus nominalism,Galileo was a(n):

A)realist
B)nominalist
C)agnostic
D)Cynic

Question 36

Galileo was among the first to conclude that:

A)the world of appearance was inferior to a perfect abstract world
B)a science of psychology (conscious experience)was impossible
C)secondary qualities were superior to primary qualities
D)human pleasures,passions,and ambitions can be,and should be,studied objectively

Question 37

Galileo made a sharp distinction between objective and subjective reality.These concepts refer to which respectively?

A)primary;secondary qualities
B)secondary;primary qualities
C)experiences of color;experiences of shape
D)consciousness;unconsciousness

Question 38

In his explanation of physical events,Galileo emphasized:

A)forces external to physical events
B)natural places
C)essences
D)purposes

Question 39

The only justification for accepting Copernicus' heliocentric theory was that it:

A)made accurate astronomical predictions
B)was compatible with church dogma
C)explained known astrological facts in a simpler,more harmonious,mathematical order
D)accorded well with the evidence of the senses

Question 40

Galileo believed all of the following except:

A)the universe could be understood only in mathematical terms
B)true reality existed beyond the world of appearances
C)Copernicus' heliocentric theory
D)the geocentric theory

Question 41

Descartes believed that innate ideas:

A)were figments of the imaginations
B)referred to things found in the empirical world
C)come from experience
D)were revealed by God

Question 42

All of the following were true of Descartes' philosophy except:

A)it demonstrated conclusively that humans could be understood as machines
B)it brought attention to the mechanical aspects of human behavior
C)it specified interactionism with such clarity that others could accept or reject it
D)it stimulated the development of physiological and comparative psychology

Question 43

Deduction involves:

A)the construction of scientific laws
B)developing a principle common to several individual observations
C)predicting a particular even from a general principle
D)exploring biases that result from blind allegiance to any viewpoint

Question 44

Bacon believed that ____ must precede ____.

A)experiments of light;experiments of fruit
B)experiments of fruit;experiments of light
C)deduction;induction
D)the idol of the tribe;the idol of the marketplace

Question 45

After a painful search,Descartes concluded that the only thing of which he could be certain was:

A)Scholasticism
B)the writings of Plato,Aristotle,and the early Christian philosophers
C)the fact that he doubted
D)the fact that he had no doubts

Question 46

Baconian science stressed:

A)the simple gathering of empirical facts
B)the search for abstract principles using rational (logical)analysis
C)generalization following careful empirical observation and similarities and differences noted
D)the study of insects such as ants,spiders,and bees

Question 47

According to Bacon,the biases that result from being overly influenced by the traditional meanings of words constituted the:

A)idol of the cave
B)idol of the tribe
C)idol of the marketplace
D)idol of the theater

Question 48

Concerning the mind-body relationship,Descartes proposed:

A)psychophysical parallelism
B)epiphenomenalism
C)idealistic monism
D)interactionism

Question 49

Descartes believed all of the following about the mind except:

A)it was nonmaterial
B)it permeated the entire body
C)its existence could be logically demonstrated
D)it was possessed only by humans

Question 50

According to Bacon,the personal biases that result from one's own experiences and education constituted the:

A)idol of the cave
B)idol of the tribe
C)idol of marketplace
D)idol of theater

Question 51

Descartes chose this part of the human body as the house for the mind:

A)heart
B)pineal gland
C)ventricles
D)cerebral cortex

Question 52

According to Descartes,when a sense receptor was stimulated,"delicate threads" were pulled and cavities in the brain were opened,thereby releasing ____ into the nerves.

A)electrical activity
B)animal spirits
C)chemicals
D)eidola

Question 53

History has shown that Bacon's inductive approach to science was largely ignored.However,____ and his followers adopted Bacon's philosophy of science.

A)Freud
B)Watson
C)Skinner
D)Mach

Question 54

Later in history,Bacon's approach to science was called:

A)romanticism
B)positivism
C)dialectics
D)metaphysical

Question 55

According to Bacon,the human tendency to see events as they would like them constituted the:

A)idol of the cave
B)idol of the tribe
C)idol of the marketplace
D)idol of the theater

Question 56

Descartes explained all animal behavior and much human behavior in terms of ____ principles.

A)innate
B)mechanical
C)religious
D)rational

Question 57

According to Bacon,blind allegiance to dogma,authority,or tradition constituted the:

A)idol of the cave
B)idol of the tribe
C)idol of the marketplace
D)idol of the theater

Question 58

Descartes had an intellectual crisis when:

A)he failed his first university course
B)he could not embrace God through introspection
C)it occurred to him that everything he had ever learned was useless
D)he observed that mechanical statues could perform a complex series of movements

Question 59

Descartes followed all of the following rules while seeking certainty except:

A)avoid all prejudgments
B)proceed in an orderly fashion from the simple to the complex
C)accept only conclusions that are beyond any doubt
D)always proceed from the general to the specific

Question 60

Descartes concluded that we could trust sensory information because:

A)God created our sensory apparatus and God would not deceive us
B)it was always clear and distinct
C)it was compatible with innate ideas
D)it made common sense to do so

Question 61

The church readily accepted Descartes' books as supportive of church beliefs.

Question 62

Describe Newton's view of God's relation to the universe.

Question 63

Descartes' view on animal and human behavior made the study of animals legitimate.

Question 64

For Bacon,science was to develop theories and hypotheses from the observations made.

Question 65

Describe the characteristics of Baconian science and his four sources of error (the idols).

Question 66

Briefly describe the major themes of Renaissance humanism.

Question 67

For Galileo,secondary qualities are pure psychological experiences.

Question 68

Newton's views did not agree with the idea of deism.

Question 69

Bacon believed that to understand nature,we must study it directly and objectively.

Question 70

Discuss Descartes' description of the mechanistic reflex and the nervous system.

Question 71

Discuss Galileo's ideas regarding primary and secondary qualities.

Question 72

The renaissance humanists attacked church dogma harshly but accepted the authority of Aristotle's science.

Question 73

Regarding the mind-body issue Descartes was a dualist and interactionist.

Question 74

Descartes believed that humans have at least some innate ideas.

Question 75

Descartes' method included intuition and induction.

Question 76

Skinner and his followers adopted Bacon's positivistic view of science.

Question 77

The Ptolemaic system had the earth as the center.

Question 78

Galileo believed that consciousness could not be studied objectively.

Question 79

Copernicus' heliocentric system stated that the earth revolved around the sun and thus the sun was divine.

Question 80

The Renaissance humanists desired a more personal,less formal,and less ritualistic religion.