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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. What does Beauvoir claim to be the only solution for those who are oppressed?
(a) Deny the harmony of mankind by revolting against the tyrants.
(b) Avoid the negative consequences of oppression by producing as directed.
(c) Negate oppression by willing oneself free.
(d) Assume the Aesthetic Attitude and escape the turmoil of the world for an existence of contemplation.

2. What does Beauvoir identify as the paradox of Marxist thought?
(a) "Marxist deny accepting morality while condemning all movements that do not accept their moral view."
(b) "The point at which the proletariat overthrows the bourgeois, they immediately attempt to become bourgeois."
(c) "Marxist deny desires for material things while devoting their revolution to taking material things."
(d) "From the moment a man recognizes himself as free, he is prohibited from wishing for anything."

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

4. What does Beauvoir suggest to be the motivation of those who adopt the Aesthetic Attitude?
(a) It is taken so the individual can reflect on the role of the will in using freedom.
(b) It is meant to understand the beauty of freedom.
(c) It is a way of fleeing the truth of the present.
(d) It is a means of understanding the role of oppression in history.

5. What Beauvoir claim to happen to a democratic regime that defends itself by acts of oppression?
(a) It is embracing the ambiguity of existence.
(b) It faces the possibility of becoming oppressive.
(c) It is pursuing political goals.
(d) It betrays its virtues.

Short Answer Questions

1. What claim of existentialists does Beauvoir offer in defense of detractors to existentialism?

2. What possibility does Beauvoir claim the fundamental ambiguity of the human condition opens to men?

3. According to Beauvoir, what stops an individual's life from appearing as a negligible thing?

4. What does Beauvoir claim to be the violence committed by opponents to the Nazi occupation of France.

5. Why does Beauvoir suggest that the idea of the ambiguity of existence should not be considered absurd?

(see the answer key)

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