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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 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When an individual aims at a goal that will be achieved beyond his own death, what does Beauvoir claim the individual should expect from the time given to the goal?
(a) The individual should expect his virtues to be challenged through his effort.
(b) The individual should expect a festival be given in his honor.
(c) The individual should expect those who share his vision accept his means.
(d) The individual should not expect anything of that time for which he worked.

2. How does Beauvoir claim that oppressive regimes become stronger?
(a) Through being willing to kill allies.
(b) Through ruthlessly enforcing law.
(c) Through the degradation of the oppressed.
(d) Through indiscriminate violence that removes all pretense of freedom.

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

4. According to Beauvoir, upon what do politicians rely to sustain their influence over individuals?
(a) The power and brutality of police.
(b) The guile and persuasion of well constructed statements.
(c) The subjective use of history.
(d) A utopian view of the future.

5. In what way does Beauvoir consider nihilistic thinking to be right?
(a) In realizing that peace is punctuated by oppression and revolution.
(b) In understanding the future will be marked by violence.
(c) In understanding the obstacles that come from a complex world.
(d) In thinking that the world possesses no justification and that he himself is nothing.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Beauvoir claim an individual can prevent life from being defined as an escape toward nothingness?

2. How does Beauvoir explain that artists can betray their aim with their aesthetic justification?

3. How does Beauvoir claim failure affects art and science?

4. How does Beauvoir suggest a child has a state of security?

5. What three considerations an individual make before acting are abstract, according to Beauvoir?

(see the answer key)

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