TASK DEFINITION: In this task you will be given a text passage from a trivia quiz. You should choose the category this question belongs to from these categories: History, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, Literature. You can only choose one category, so if in doubt, please choose the closest match.
PROBLEM: One poem by this author claims that "there's nothing sentimental about the technique of writing," which can be mastered by "any young man with a mind bursting to get out." This author argued that "The United States without self- seeking has given more of material help to Europe and to the world than have all other nations of the world put together in the entire history of mankind" in the chapter "Jacataqua," from a book which contains short biographies of people like Eric the Red, Walter Raleigh, and Daniel Boone. Another book by him begins with the section "The Delineaments of the Giants," which mentions "blank faces of the houses and cylindrical trees" to reinforce that there are "no ideas but in things," and describes a place that  "lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls, its spent waters forming the outline of his back." For 10 points, name this author of In the American Grain and an epic about his New Jersey hometown, Paterson.

SOLUTION: Literature

PROBLEM: This writer distinguished between learning through description and learning through acquaintance in a work that introduces the Cartesian method of doubt with the example of a table. This man attempted to solve the problem of negative existentials in a work that claimed that "Aristotle" was not a name but a description. That work by this man also criticized Meinong and rejects the distinction between propositions and truth values proposed in (*) Frege's On Sense and Reference. This author of The Problems of Philosophy and "On Denoting" introduced his namesake paradox in naive set theory in a work that attempted to explain mathematics with axiomatic logic. For 10 points, name this British philosopher who co-wrote Principia Mathematica with Alfred North Whitehead.

SOLUTION: Social Science

PROBLEM: One character in this opera sings the aria "Avant de quitter ces lieux," in which he reveals he will be safe at war because of his sacred medallion but worries about his sister. The antagonist rouses Siebel and Wagner with the "Song of the Golden Calf." The lead soprano of this opera is Marguerite, who sings about the finery of her necklaces and earrings in the "Jewel Song." The antagonist of this opera uses an image of (*) Marguerite at her spinning wheel to convince the title character to sell his soul. For 10 points, name this Charles Gounod opera about Mephisopheles and a German scholar.

SOLUTION:
Fine Arts