Life and Everything: Non-Fiction and Society Quiz

Answer: Charles Darwin

'The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals', published in 1872, was Charles Darwin's third book on evolution, after the more famous 'On the Origin of Species' and 'The Descent of Man'. In this third book, Charles Darwin mentions some foundational ideas of behavioural genetics. Common human behaviour such as lifting the eyebrows when surprised are linked to the internal coordination of movement, rather than cultural factors.

Answer: Arthur Schopenhauer

'The World as Will and Representation', published in 1818, is the magnum opus of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. It builds on earlier works by Immanuel Kant. Arthur Schopenhauer affirms certain portions and criticizes certain portions of Kant's theory of transcendental idealism, which says that human experience of something depends on how it appears to us. Schopenhauer advocates philosophical pessimism, and the removal of irrational hopes.

Answer: Thomas Carlyle

'The French Revolution: A History', by Thomas Carlyle, was first published in 1837. It depicts the history of France from the storming of the Bastille fortress in 1789 to the Reign of Terror till 1794. The book is noted for its unorthodox style of presenting events, as the book is written in the present tense.

The book is written in a style as if the author and the reader were actual observers of the various events. Charles Dickens, while writing 'A Tale of Two Cities', was influenced by this book.

Answer: Friedrich Engels

'The Condition of the Working Class', written by Friedrich Engels, was published in 1845. Friedrich Engels wrote the book when he was staying in Manchester from 1842 to 1846. He used both his own observations and other reports as source material. Engels argued that the Industrial Revolution was actually diminishing the quality of lives of the workers, due to a variety of factors such as higher mortality rate due to smallpox and whooping cough. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx were later co-authors of 'The Communist Manifesto'.

Answer: Soren Kierkegaard

The book 'Fear and Trembling' was published in 1843, under the pseudonym 'Johannes de silentio'. The name of the book refers to a line from the Epistle to the Philippians, the eleventh book in the New Testament. A large portion of the book is devoted to the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac, as depicted in the Bible.

The book brings out Kierkegaard's ideas as an existentialist philosopher. Existentialism is a philosophy where the individual determines his or her development through his or her free will.

Answer: David Hume

'A Treatise of Human Nature' by David Hume was first published in 1738. It is a landmark book adhering to the philosophy of empiricism, which believes that all knowledge is derived from experience from the senses. Hume was inspired by Isaac Newton, who had done revolutionary work in physics through empirical investigation. David Hume tries to find about human nature through empirical investigations.

He argues against rationalism, which says that all human knowledge is derived from human logic and reasoning. Hume says that human passion dominates reason in influencing human behaviour.

Moreover, David Hume said that many of our beliefs regarding cause and effect are due to habit rather than reason.

Answer: John Stuart Mill

The book 'On Liberty', by John Stuart Mill, was published in 1859. The book builds upon his earlier work 'Utilitarianism', by explaining how utilitarianism can be applied to the State and society. The book advocates for the liberty of individual people, and criticizes systems which result in a majority imposing its rights on the minority. John Stuart Mill recommended a system where the greatest number of people had the greatest well-being. Thus, the liberty of a person could be restricted if the restriction prevented harm to others.

Answer: Thomas Hobbes

'Leviathan' by Thomas Hobbes was first published in 1651. It advocates the rule of society by an absolute sovereign. In the book, Hobbes said that in the absence of a person society either fears or is in awe of, mankind is always in a warlike condition.

This can be only prevented by a strong, united government. The name 'Leviathan' refers to a sea monster of the same name referred to in the Hebrew Bible.

Answer: John Locke

The book 'Two Treatises of Government' by John Locke, published in 1689, consists of two treatises, as its name suggests. The first treatise rejects the theory of divine right to rule by kings, and opposes monarchism. This is done by providing a line-by-line refutation of the book 'Patriarcha', by Robert Filmer.

The second treatise brings forward John Locke's theory of an alternative form of government, which is based on a contract between the government and the governed, and believes in natural rights of common people.

Answer: Leo Tolstoy

The book 'What is Art?' was completed being written in 1897, but was first published in English due to Russian censorship. Tolstoy is dismissive of noted artists such as Richard Wagner, William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri. Leo Tolstoy rejects the usage of beauty to define what is art and instead defines art as the recommunication of an emotion the creator had earlier experienced.

The book evaluates the worthiness of a large variety of art, such as music and poetry, by finding how much it is in sync with Christian values.

Answer: Galileo Galilei

'Two New Sciences', published in 1638, was the final book published by Galileo Galilei. It covered a large portion of his work in physics in the last thirty years. The Roman Inquisition had banned the publication of his works after 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems' was published.

His book could only be first published in Leiden, the Netherlands. The book is written in a style where three characters, Simplicio, Sagredo, and Salviati, debate among themselves. The book covers topics such as accelerated motion, cohesion and projectile motion.

Answer: Adam Smith

'The Theory of Moral Sentiments', published in 1759, covers the ethical and moral aspects of issues that Adam Smith had covered in his earlier works, such as 'The Wealth of Nations'. Adam Smith argued that through social interactions, people derive a moral conscience in order to achieve a mutual sympathy.

Inspired by Francis Hutcheson, he divided moral philosophy into ethics, liberty and rights, economics and politics.

Answer: Blaise Pascal

'Pensees', or 'Thoughts' was a book by Blaise Pascal on theology, first published in 1670. 'Pensees' was written as a defence of Christianity, after Pascal started leading an ascetic life. The book is noted for the Pascal's Wager, an argument where he says that people bet with their lives whether God exists or not. If God actually existed and human beings did not believe in God, they were risking leading a bad afterlife.

However, if God did not exist and people still believed in God, they would have led an upright life.

This was a basic application of decision theory, and Pascal advocated that people should believe in God. Blaise Pascal is also known for Pascal's theorem in geometry and for Pascal's triangle in combinatorics.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

'Codex Arundel' was authored by Leonardo da Vinci between 1480 and 1518. It is a collection of his treatises on many topics, such as geometry and mechanics. The Earl of Arundel acquired the manuscript in Spain, after whom the work was named. Da Vinci explored the working of wings of birds in this work as well.

A noted feature of the codex is a study and planning of an underwater breathing device for divers.

Answer: Friedrich Nietzsche

The book 'Beyond Good and Evil', published in 1886, builds upon Nietzsche's earlier work 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'. The book 'Beyond Good and Evil' brings out Nietzsche's existentialism, as he speaks of the 'will to power'. He disagreed with the earlier consensus that people observe nature and derive morals and values from them.

He believed that strong-willed people create their own morals.