CLEP Humanities : Identifying Titles, Authors, or Schools of Twentieth-Century Nonfiction and Philosophy
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Example Question #141 : Clep: Humanities
Which of the following authors is associated with Phenomenology?
Gregory of Rimini
Alasdair MacIntyre
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Bertrand Russel
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
It was Edmund Husserl who inaugurated the movement known as Phenomenology. He was closely concerned with issues pertaining to the foundations of mathematics and logic as well as numerous questions in psychology being discussed in his time. Phenomenology became a wide and varied field, incorporating many thinkers throughout the 20th century. It remains a major school of thought, though its influence has become more diffuse. Husserl believed that he was providing a form of philosophy that overcame the modern problem of Idealism, allowing philosophers once again to discuss the "things in themselves." Phenomenology became a study of the way that things "appear"—how they come into awareness and just how they are constituted by the human knower. He is known for works such as Logical Investigations, Ideas (in numerous versions), Cartesian Meditations, and Formal and Transcendental Logic.
Example Question #142 : Clep: Humanities
Which of the following philosophers was not an American?
Bertrand Russel
Josiah Royce
Charles Sanders Peirce
John Dewey
William James
Bertrand Russel
Perhaps you do not know all of these thinkers, though the names are likely to be somewhat known to you, at least from lists in texts. Sadly, America has not existed long enough to create a large group of philosophers as was the case in ancient Greece, the High Middle Ages (or even the so-called period of "Silver Scholasticism" in Spain and the Low Countries), or modern Europe. Still, there have been some, but among their number has never been Bertrand Russell. Lord Russell is an Englishman—a great logician and mathematician but not an American philosopher.
Example Question #143 : Clep: Humanities
Which of the following authors often discussed his belief that careful readings of a text often revealed a layers of "secret" or "esoteric" messages and meanings?
Henry of Ghent
Moses Maimonides
Leo Strauss
Benjamin Jowett
David Hume
Leo Strauss
The 20th century political philosopher, Leo Strauss, believed that many political and philosophical writings contain esoteric meanings. He came to this conclusion based on his interpretations of the writings of the Muslim philosopher al-Farabi and the dialogues of Plato. Plato's dialogues are particularly well known for the use of many layers of irony, wit, and story to express deep philosophical truths. Strauss (and his followers, who are called "Straussians") came to use this method for interpreting many texts.
He was very influential, given his time as a professor at the University of Chicago, and is often associated with the American political movement known as neoconservatism. This association is not quite true, however. Really, if his followers share anything in common, it is a devotion to a close reading of texts, often those of Greek thinkers but also including others in the canon of philosophy and political philosophy. Their readings do tend to be so close as to look for many such hidden shades of esoteric meanings.
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