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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 focus of the adventurer?
(a) To define life by attempting to will himself free.
(b) To live in defiance of oppression for ambiguous goals.
(c) To enter the future by leaving memorable acts for the past.
(d) To satisfy a desire for existence in a present, subjective, abstract moment.

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

3. What type of man does Beauvoir identify as being nihilistic?
(a) When a man who faces failure becomes conscious of being unable to be anything and decides to be nothing.
(b) The man who sees the futility of his goals and realizes he has missed the benefits of his ambiguity.
(c) The point at which the serious man realizes the pursuit of his goals have been made at the expense of his freedom.
(d) The man who disputes the seriousness of another man's goals to the point that his goals are regarded as generally useless as a consequence.

4. How does Beauvoir compare southern slaves to children?
(a) By comparing their obedience to the slave owner to that of children to adults in their lives.
(b) By comparing the ignorance of their condition to the ignorance of children to the realities of the world.
(c) By comparing hopes for freedom to the a child's hope for the future.
(d) By comparing their faith in a heavenly afterlife to the fantasy world that children create in their minds.

5. What does Beauvoir identify as the certain truth contained in the nihilist attitude?
(a) In the nihilist attitude one experiences the ambiguity of the human condition.
(b) The nihilist attitude realizes the unreliability of man.
(c) The nihilist attitude understands the finite nature of life.
(d) The nihilist attitude is prepared for obstacles that always come from a complex world.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Beauvoir claim that no project can be considered to be purely contemplative?

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

3. At what time does Beauvoir suggest that children begin to notice the contradictions, hesitations and weaknesses of adults?

4. How does Beauvoir suggest violent action against oppression becomes a contradiction to the cause of freedom?

5. At what point does Beauvoir claim an individual has the ability to decide and choose?

(see the answer key)

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