Q 01/05

Which French writer, born François-Marie Arouet, took his pen name after a spell in the Bastille?

A) Molière

B) Stendhal

C) Voltaire

D) Beaumarchais

Answer · why

C) Voltaire

Voltaire is known to have used at least 178 pen names. A second spell in the Bastille ended in exile to England, whose freedom of speech and religion ...

Q 02/05

Which English philosopher's Two Treatises of Government defended the right to overthrow a tyrant?

A) John Locke

B) Robert Filmer

C) Algernon Sidney

D) John Milton

Answer · why

A) John Locke

John Locke published the work anonymously. Most scholars trace the American phrase 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' to his theory of right...

Q 03/05

Which 1776 document drew on Enlightenment natural rights and listed 27 grievances against George III?

A) Articles of Confederation

B) Declaration of Independence

C) Virginia Declaration of Rights

D) Federalist Papers

Answer · why

B) Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence turned theory into an act of state: governments, it says, derive 'their just powers from the consent of the governed'.

Q 04/05

Which Scottish 'father of economics' said an 'invisible hand' turns self-interest to public benefit?

A) David Ricardo

B) Thomas Malthus

C) James Mill

D) Adam Smith

Answer · why

D) Adam Smith

Adam Smith used the phrase only once in The Wealth of Nations. His earlier Theory of Moral Sentiments argued that people naturally take an interest in...

Q 05/05

Which English scientist, a hero to Enlightenment thinkers, set out laws of motion and gravity in the Principia?

A) Robert Boyle

B) Isaac Newton

C) Edmond Halley

D) Robert Hooke

Answer · why

B) Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton spent some 30 years running the Royal Mint, pursuing counterfeiters whose crime was punished as high treason.