Applied Philosophy Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The correct matching is Hinduism with the Bhagavadgita, Zoroastrianism with the Avesta, Jainism with the Tattvārthasūtra and Christianity with the Bible, a-iii, b-ii, c-iv, d-i, option D.

The Bhagavadgita is a sacred text of Hinduism, the Avesta is the scripture of the Zoroastrians, the Tattvārthasūtra is the Jaina work that sets out its doctrine, and the Bible is the Christian scripture. Options A, B and C each give the Bible or the Avesta to the wrong religion.

Answer: B

Islam is a prophetic religion, so the second option is correct. A prophetic religion rests on revelation delivered through a prophet, here Muhammad, who is regarded as the last of the prophets. Hinduism and Buddhism are generally called mystical or non-prophetic, since they do not rest on one prophet's revealed message in this sense, so the options naming them are wrong. Revelation through a prophet, as in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is what marks a prophetic religion.

Answer: C

Bhagwandas is the author of The Essential Unity of All Religions, so the third option is correct. The book argues that the great religions share a common core. Radhakrishnan and Tagore wrote on religion, but this work is credited to Bhagwan Das, who wrote on the unity of religions and on theosophy. The remaining options either name authors who wrote on religion in general or deny that any author in the list wrote the book.

Answer: C

'Woman is not born, but made' is the statement of Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex ('One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman'). Mary Wollstonecraft, Emma Goldman and Luce Irigaray are feminist writers, but this saying is Beauvoir's. The remark is the opening of a chapter in her book about how women are shaped by society and not by nature.

Answer: C

The Will theory rests on freedom, so statement (B) is true and statement (A) is false, which is the third option. The Will theory says that rights protect the individual's freedom of choice, while the interest theory in (A) says that rights protect essential human interests. Hence (A) describes the interest theory, and the options claiming that both are true or that (A) is true are wrong. The Will theory goes back to Hart and the interest theory to Bentham and Raz, as seen in the human rights debate.

Answer: C

The correct pairing is Buddhism with Aṣṭāṅgamārga (the eightfold path), Islam with praying five times a day, Sikhism with Nāmasmaraṇa (remembering the Name) and Jainism with Guṇasthāna (the fourteen stages of spiritual ascent). That is a-iii, b-iv, c-ii and d-i.

Options A, B and D each give at least one religion a process that belongs to another. For instance, A gives Nāmasmaraṇa to Buddhism, and B gives Guṇasthāna to Buddhism. Only C has all four right.

Answer: C

For Gandhi 'Sarvadharma Sambhava' means that all religions are to be treated equally, that is, with equal respect. He did not want one religion to be placed above another, nor to merge all into one.

Option A, that all religions should be synthesised, is wrong because Gandhi did not wish to blend them. Option B states a true thing about religions but not the meaning of the term. Option D, the unity of all religions, goes further than equal respect, and Gandhi's stress was on equal regard, not on an assertion that they are one. The answer is C.

Answer: D

Zoroastrianism has the Avesta, Judaism the Talmud, Sikhism the Granth Saheb and Buddhism the Tripitakas. So the order is a-ii, b-iv, c-i and d-iii.

Option A gives the Granth Saheb to Zoroastrianism and the Avesta to Buddhism. Option B gives the Avesta to Zoroastrianism but puts the Granth Saheb under Judaism. Option C gives the Tripitakas to Zoroastrianism. Only D matches each religion with its own scripture.

Answer: A

Human rights presuppose the dignity of the human being. It is because a person has an inherent worth that he or she is owed rights, wherever he or she lives.

Proper living conditions, rights in a particular society and universal rights in a particular society are consequences or applications of this idea, or are tied to a society, and so are not what the rights are based on. The answer is A.