This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 1-3, The Aesthetic Attitude, Freedom and Liberation, The Antinomies of Action.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Beauvoir claims that critics of existentialism claim that it is solipsistic. What is solipsism?
(a) The theory that only the self (mind) exists or can be proven to exist.
(b) The theory that life is nothing more than a creation in the mind of God.
(c) The theory that life is replicated on many planets in many worlds.
(d) The theory that only the physical life exists and matter is eternal.

2. To what does Beauvoir compare the presence of freedom within the drama of choice?
(a) The calm before the storm.
(b) The arbitrariness of the grace distributed by God in Calvinistic Doctrine.
(c) The historian who chooses threads that take him to the original cause.
(d) The adolescent who sees the world constructed for him as a child is corrupt.

3. What does Beauvoir assert to be the consequences of a world in which every man has to do with other men?
(a) The world is subject to the will of men who seek either freedom or oppression.
(b) The world is a human world in which each object is penetrated with human meanings.
(c) Every man must accept his ambiguity and will his freedom.
(d) Every man must recognize that his freedom is only secured as long as no one attempts to oppress others.

4. How does Beauvoir explain that technics (technology) is not objectively justified?
(a) Technics depends on science for its gains, but science only has purpose when it can transcend time.
(b) Technics can have significant benefit for projects in the present, but too often it fuels the desire to accept the Aesthetic Attitude.
(c) Technics makes the absolute goal of saving time and work of life, but life only gains meaning when time and work are spent.
(d) Technics too often aims at expanding freedom, but ends up causing individuals to be absorbed into the seriousness of projects.

5. How does Beauvoir explain that artists can betray their aim with their aesthetic justification?
(a) By the fact that their attempt to withdraw for the cause of aesthetics frequently lead to works that are used by the serious for their projects.
(b) By facing the reality that their epiphanies found in their contemplation require action of creation before they can be seriously considered.
(c) By addressing an evil with a work for which the beauty is more regarded than the message.
(d) By creating a project that removes them from their detachment and makes them part of history.