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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Beauvoir consider stubbornness in the face of an obstacle that is impossible to overcome?
(a) As stupidity.
(b) As the seed of innocent hope.
(c) As that trial that brings experience.
(d) As the beginning of innovation.

2. Although Beauvoir reports that existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity, what does she claim to be existentialism's fundamental flaw?
(a) It is so deeply ambiguous that its true understanding cannot be achieved.
(b) It is incapable of furnishing any principle for making choices.
(c) Existentialism is essentially taken by individuals seeking to pursue what is normally antisocial and contributes to the violence of mastery of nature.
(d) Its true ambiguity is superficial since it has no moral code.

3. In what sense does Beauvoir claim that every man is free?
(a) In the sense that he is free to end or continue his existence.
(b) In the sense that he spontaneously casts himself into the world.
(c) In the sense that only consequences affect his choices.
(d) In the sense that he can choose his own ethic.

4. How does human spontaneity give purpose to a human life, according to Beauvoir?
(a) By the fact the spontaneous act of an individual draws a response from others.
(b) By spontaneity always projecting itself toward something.
(c) By spontaneous acts have affects in a physical world.
(d) By spontaneous acts require conscious evaluation to determine their usefulness.

5. How does Beauvoir explain that Marxists perceive that acts can be regarded as good or bad?
(a) Only through the destruction of private property.
(b) Through the revolt of a class which define aims and goals from a which a new state appears as desirable.
(c) Only when systems are designed that each takes according to his need.
(d) Only when systems are formed in which each gives according to his ability.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Beauvoir explain that the Marxist paradox lends to her theory the scheme of man is ambiguous?

2. Beauvoir claims that dualists use their basic belief to establish what idea?

3. What is the illustration Beauvoir uses to prove her assertion of stubbornness in the face of impossibility?

4. To what conclusion to Beauvoir arrive regarding Sartre's internal choices that are affected by personal passions?

5. What explanation does Beauvoir give to assert that existentialist thought helps to build community.

(see the answer key)

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