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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. What is the point at which existentialism is opposed to dialectic materialism according to Beauvoir?
(a) Where subjectivity and objectivity become equally determined by the revolt of the proletariat.
(b) When the proletariat universally works to eliminate its class.
(c) Where revolt, need, hope, rejection, and desire are only the resultants of external forces.
(d) Where intellectual and bourgeois revolutions are considered suspiciously by the proletariat.

2. What contradiction does Beauvoir suggest will come to those who fight for a cause due to the complexity of the world?
(a) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to sacrifice his principles.
(b) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to face a humiliating defeat.
(c) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to leaving a valued friend.
(d) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to the point of fighting against valid causes.

3. What role does time play what Beauvoir identifies as the ability to will oneself free?
(a) The goal of freedom is pursued and confirmed in time.
(b) The individual uses time to manipulate the physical world to exercise his freedom.
(c) Time is required for the individual to understand that he is free.
(d) Time allows the accumulation of spontaneous acts to define their direction.

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

5. How does Beauvoir compare Marxism to existentialism?
(a) Marxism rejects the moral foundations of law that are rooted in the protection of public property.
(b) Marxism rejects the idea of authority in the development of organized masses.
(c) Marxism rejects the idea of inhuman objectivity and locates itself in the tradition of Kant and Hegel.
(d) Marxism establishes moral thought through mass rejection of the moral order.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Beauvoir identify as the irony of the serious man?

2. What does Beauvoir call pursuing the movement toward an end despite the obstacle of certain failure?

3. How does Beauvoir explain that Marxists perceive that acts can be regarded as good or bad?

4. What does Beauvoir suggest to be the motivation of those who adopt the Aesthetic Attitude?

5. What does Beauvoir identify as the certain truth contained in the nihilist attitude?

(see the answer key)

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