View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 1, Ambiguity and Freedom.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who does Beauvoir use as an example of moving through such obstacles?
(a) Sisyphus.
(b) Hitler.
(c) Adalai Stevenson.
(d) Vincent Van Gogh.

2. What idea regarding ethics does Beauvoir attribute to Hegel?
(a) "Ethics is self-contained because reality is self-contained."
(b) "Ethics is irrelevant because they only affect manipulation of a material universe."
(c) "There is an ethics only if there is a problem to solve."
(d) "Ethics are the creation of minds that fear facing problems."

3. In what way does Beauvoir suggest Marxists practice free will?
(a) By choosing to participate or deny proletariat revolution.
(b) By identifying the bourgeois.
(c) By choosing to become Marxists.
(d) By acting and preaching to others to act.

4. How does Beauvoir explain what Descartes meant when he said that the freedom of man is infinite, but this power is limited?
(a) That man's mind has no limits in thought, but his physical body does not have the ability to follow the thoughts.
(b) That the will is defined only by raising obstacles and by the contingency of certain obstacles that let themselves be conquered and others that do not.
(c) The individual man has the power to follow his desires until his pursuit is obstructed by a more power man.
(d) That man is free to believe all things, but achieving them is subject to the physical universe.

5. At what point does Beauvoir claim an individual has the ability to decide and choose?
(a) When he responds to the consequences of spontaneous acts.
(b) When he can see and manipulate the affects of spontaneous acts on the physical world.
(c) When the moments of his life begin to be organized into behavior.
(d) When the usefulness of spontaneous acts are identifiable by the individual.

Short Answer Questions

1. By quoting Dostoyevsky ("If God does not exist, then everything is permitted"), what examination does Beauvoir make?

2. What irony does Beauvoir suggest contributes to the most optimistic ethics.

3. In what sense does Beauvoir claim that every man is free?

4. How does Beauvoir claim that a spontaneous action, or flight, can be converted into will?

5. What does Beauvoir report to the the qualities of God that establishes moral standards?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 570 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample