CLEP Humanities : Analyzing the Form of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Nonfiction and Philosophy

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #501 : Clep: Humanities

Who is the philosopher most associated with a three-part dialectic as an argumentative form?

Possible Answers:

Arthur Schopenhauer

Soren Kierkegaard

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Friedrich Nietzsche 

Ludwig Feuerbach

Correct answer:

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Explanation:

The "Hegelian dialectic" is often rendered as Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis, meaning any statement can be opposed by an opposite idea, and the clash of the two ideas will create a better philosophical statement. Hegel preferred the terms "abstract," "negative," and "concrete," which better explained the ideas' relationship. Hegel's dialectic was widely influential; it was used by thinkers like Karl Marx and argued against by philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.

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