Third Quiz

June 3, 1997

On the front of this sheet of paper, answer each of the following questions. Provide a distinct answer for each question, numbering your answers as you proceed. Your answers will be graded according to preciseness as well as accuracy. Before turning in your quiz, fold this sheet of paper in half, lengthwise (i.e., so that the crease goes from top to botton, down the middle), and write your name on the back. Only answers written on the front will influence your grade, and nothing written on the front should reveal your identity.

1. On what does Hume say the authority of the civil magistrate is founded?
2. With the claim “A constable, therefore, no less than a king, acts by divine commission, and possesses an indefeasible right,” Hume concludes a passage discussing the divine-right-of-kings theory of political authority. Is this passage essentially sympathetic or unsympathetic to this theory, and what is the main idea of Hume’s defense or criticism of it?
3. What is Hume’s reply to the claim that people who remain in a country show that they consent to the way it is being ruled?
4. The accusation which Vere tells Claggart to repeat, and which he does repeat, is that Billy has been secretly inciting other sailors to mutiny. Hoes does Billy react and respond to the accusation?
5. What is the “primitive basis” on which Melville says Vere was “not authorized to determine the matter”?