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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are the two meanings that Beauvoir gives to the word future.
(a) Future is that which is yet to come, but is the substance of all projects.
(b) It is the ambiguous condition of man which is lack of being as well as man's existence.
(c) Future is both a speculation and a target.
(d) The future is never here, but man is always moving toward it.

2. What are the four items that Beauvoir identifies as the "indefinite conquests of existence over being"?
(a) Aesthetics, ambiguity, freedom, and oppression.
(b) Past, present, future, and projects.
(c) Time, space, matter, and thought.
(d) Science, technics, art, and philosophy.

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

4. For whom do Beauvoir and Marx agree that the cause of freedom is most urgent?
(a) The proletariat who is controlled by the bourgeois.
(b) To the oppressed that it appears as immediately necessary.
(c) Women who are unaware of the subjugation to men.
(d) The unenlightened who does not realize their exploitation.

5. What does Beauvoir claim is needed to make an ethical choice in a complex situation?
(a) Long analysis.
(b) Means that justify an end.
(c) A strong sense of ambiguity.
(d) Transcendent goals.

6. Why does Beauvoir suggest that if man waits for universal peace to establish his existence validly, he will wait indefinitely?
(a) Because struggles for controlling the future by politicians will prevent universal peace.
(b) Because it is man's reaction to war that establishes validity.
(c) Because peace is not required to establish validity.
(d) Because the world has always been at war and always will be.

7. At what point does Beauvoir declare the death of an individual is not a failure?
(a) When the cause for which he died preserves freedom for all.
(b) When it is integrated into a project which surpasses the limits of life.
(c) If his death leads to the victory of his cause.
(d) If the cause for which he died is carried on by his survivors.

8. How does Beauvoir define the present?
(a) The present is when the Aesthetic Attitude meets its most significant challenge.
(b) The present is not a potential past, it is the moment of choice and action.
(c) The present is the moment in which thought meets matter.
(d) The present is the point at which the will meets freedom.

9. According to Beauvoir, why does society exist?
(a) Society exists to distribute matter.
(b) Society exists only by the means of the existence of particular individuals.
(c) Society exists because like-minded people work to form institutions.
(d) Society exists because the mind exists.

10. How does Beauvoir claim to be the only means by which the present can retrieve itself?
(a) Through similar events through history.
(b) By transcending itself toward the permanence of future being.
(c) By holding with an existentialist who has adopted the Aesthetic Attitude.
(d) Through politicians who deny obvious truth so as to delay the consequences of their present decisions.

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

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

13. Upon what does Beauvoir claim existence is based?
(a) Ambiguity.
(b) Doing something.
(c) Goals.
(d) Freedom.

14. How does Beauvoir suggest violent action against oppression becomes a contradiction to the cause of freedom?
(a) Because those who fight oppression must oppress those who fight with them to command the battle.
(b) Because those who see oppressors as being beneficial will believe they fight for freedom in defense of an oppressor.
(c) Because conquering enemies requires reducing the enemies to things and those who fight oppression must reduce themselves to things as well.
(d) Because those who fight oppression generally desire the power of those they attempt to overthrow.

15. What three considerations an individual make before acting are abstract, according to Beauvoir?
(a) Is the action possible, is it future-oriented, will it affect the self.
(b) Is the action ambiguous, is it mental, is it physical.
(c) Is the action practical, is it good, is it bad.
(d) Does the action lead to a goal, is it transcendent, will it affect the self.

Short Answer Questions

1. What contradiction does Beauvoir suggest will come to those who fight for a cause due to the complexity of the world?

2. How does Beauvoir explain that an individual might be responsible for what they accept, but not guilty for acting upon it?

3. What does Beauvoir suggest of movements whose means of achieving a goal contradicts the goal?

4. What quote from Saint-Just does Beauvoir use to point out the paradox to the fight for freedom?

5. How does Beauvoir suggest an individual can find tranquility of the serious?

(see the answer keys)

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