1. What claim of existentialists does Beauvoir offer in defense of detractors to existentialism?
(a) Bouvoir claims that existentialists give focus to the importance of matter in reality.
(b) Bouvoir claims that existentialists help to accentuate the strengths of other theories.
(c) Bouvoir claims that existentialists believe that the world is willed by man, insofar as his will expresses his genuine reality.
(d) Bouvoir claims that existentialists offer their detractors important challenges to prove their theories.

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

3. 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 replicated on many planets in many worlds.
(c) The theory that only the physical life exists and matter is eternal.
(d) The theory that life is nothing more than a creation in the mind of God.

4. How does Beauvoir claim that a spontaneous action, or flight, can be converted into will?
(a) By recognizing the effects of the spontaneous act on the physical world.
(b) By evaluating the usefulness of the spontaneous act.
(c) By accepting the consequences of the spontaneous act.
(d) By assuming the project positively.

5. To what conclusion to Beauvoir arrive regarding Sartre's internal choices that are affected by personal passions?
(a) Since Sartre considers man as driven by internal passions, he brings to question the existence of the physical world and its causes and effects.
(b) Since passions and their choices are internal, there are no objective standards by which to define their usefulness.
(c) Since man is directed by his eternal passions, the external force of God has no influence in Sartre's existentialism.
(d) Sartre's man eliminates the needs for external moral influence by following passions that eventually lead to personal benefit.

Short Answer Questions

1. Although Beauvoir reports that existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity, what does she claim to be existentialism's fundamental flaw?

2. What does Beauvoir claim can come to people who are filled with the horror of defeat?

3. What does Beauvoir claim to be the affect of rejecting any extrinsic justification for internal choices?

4. What does Beauvoir seek to prove regarding man's mastery of the world?

5. How does Beauvoir introduce the role of God in the discussion of ethics?

(see the answer key)

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