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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Beauvoir mean when she writes, "...festivals whose role is to stop the movement of transcendence?"
(a) Festivals take people away from their future ambiguity.
(b) Festivals marking a movement's success obscure the means used to attain the success.
(c) Festivals become both a means and an end to obscure the meaninglessness of both the present and the future.
(d) The end has been set up as an end.

2. When does Beauvoir claim that science acquires meaning?
(a) When it is seen as a movement toward freedom.
(b) When science can cross the boundaries of the physical to the aesthetic.
(c) When science explains material properties of present conditions.
(d) When scientific processes prove phenomena that transcend time.

3. What does Beauvoir mean when she refers to "The Antinomies of Action"?
(a) That the intentions of the those who act against oppression must be constantly in check.
(b) That often in the fight for or against oppression, the action contradicts the motivation.
(c) That actions, not words, are most effective against oppression.
(d) That improper actions against oppression will lead to more oppression.

4. What does Beauvoir claim to be the violence committed by opponents to the Nazi occupation of France.
(a) To defeat the German military.
(b) To inspire the nation to overthrow the occupation.
(c) To chase out their German occupiers.
(d) To create a state of violence that made collaboration impossible.

5. What does Beauvoir suggest of movements whose means of achieving a goal contradicts the goal?
(a) The whole enterprise sinks into absurdity.
(b) The action will set off a chain of events that will negate the goal.
(c) The goal and the individual will be disregarded.
(d) The individual who takes such an approach will become a politician.

6. What example did Beauvoir use to show how those who fight for a cause will come to accept certain contradictions.
(a) Generals who were willing to pull their soldiers from battle so they could win a more important battle later.
(b) Martyrs who were killed by authoritarians who sought to kill their causes, but their deaths gave it more influence.
(c) Politicians who were defeated in elections by foretelling the realized negative consequences of popular programs.
(d) Natives who fought freedom from the British Empire during WWII with the support of Fascist regimes.

7. What is the paradox that Beauvoir identifies in the fight against oppression?
(a) Oppression cannot be defeated with out oppression being applied.
(b) Those who desire peace and freedom are too often faced with the need to subject themselves to war.
(c) No action can be generated for man without its being immediately generated against men.
(d) Peace and freedom cannot be won without first going through oppression and war.

8. How does Beauvoir claim an individual can put himself on the plane of the universal and the infinite?
(a) By assuring the means and the ends justify each other.
(b) By considering the ambiguity of their decisions.
(c) By taking goals that will transcend their lives.
(d) By considering a system abstractly and theoretically.

9. What knowledge comes to the man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires and real will according to Beauvoir?
(a) He has reached transcendence.
(b) He knows freedom.
(c) He has grasped his ambiguity.
(d) He has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals.

10. What does Beauvoir claim to be necessary to the desire for the slave to become conscious of his servitude?
(a) For the tyrant to leave the Aesthetic Attitude and accept the oppression he is bringing to others.
(b) For the individual to accept oppression for the sake of demonstrating how the individual can will their freedom.
(c) For the individual to break through the denial of the slave with a revolt against the tyrant.
(d) For the individual who wants to make the slave of his position to avoid becoming a tyrant.

11. What comes of the man of action who does not recognize the ambiguity that appears during the pursuit of his goal, according to Beauvoir?
(a) He will fall victim to the oppression he is fighting.
(b) He will lose his ability to evaluate his choices.
(c) He can become a dictator.
(d) He will lose sight of his goal.

12. At what point does Beauvoir declare the death of an individual is not a failure?
(a) When the cause for which he died preserves freedom for all.
(b) If his death leads to the victory of his cause.
(c) When it is integrated into a project which surpasses the limits of life.
(d) If the cause for which he died is carried on by his survivors.

13. How is Beauvoir asking each one to confirm their existence through the ethics of ambiguity?
(a) By the transcendence of goals.
(b) By combining mind to matter through projects.
(c) As a value for all others.
(d) As a means to an end.

14. What is the meaning that Beauvoir gives to Festivals?
(a) Existence attempts in festivals to confirm itself as positive.
(b) Politicians use festivals to obscure their oppression.
(c) Individuals in festivals attempt to escape the uncertainty of the future.
(d) Societies use festivals to exalt their virtues.

15. Upon what does Beauvoir claim existence is based?
(a) Goals.
(b) Freedom.
(c) Doing something.
(d) Ambiguity.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Beauvoir define the Aesthetic Attitude?

2. What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "The Antinomies of Action"?

3. What are projects according to Beauvoir?

4. How does Beauvoir suggest that the ends can justify the means.

5. How does Beauvoir suggest violent action against oppression becomes a contradiction to the cause of freedom?

(see the answer keys)

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