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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "The Antinomies of Action"?
(a) Men who commit violence against an oppressor for the cause of freedom become oppressors themselves and must reduce the oppressor as a thing to be removed.
(b) If those who lead actions against oppression are not under continual scrutiny, they will plan insurrections for their own benefit.
(c) That the thinkers who can define the evils of oppression actually become oppressors by making people realize their plight but offering no action to correct it.
(d) That unwise action against oppressors taken without considering the future will lead to more vicious oppression by opportunists.

2. Of what does Beauvoir accuse political parties in their effort to control the ambiguity of the human condition?
(a) Glorifying war.
(b) Creating conflicts.
(c) Making contradictory statements to appeal to all people.
(d) Abuse of language.

3. How does Beauvoir claim failure affects art and science?
(a) Failure has no effect on art and science.
(b) Art and science are set back because of failure.
(c) Art and science ignore failure.
(d) Art and science establish themselves through failure.

4. How does Beauvoir claim that the individual with the Aesthetic Attitude regard his role in history?
(a) He considers his thoughts to form the existential material of history.
(b) He considers himself outside of time, and does not belong to history.
(c) He considers his will to remain free to be the driving force of history.
(d) He considers history to have no affect on his Aesthetic Attitude.

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

6. What does Beauvoir claim an individual must do to conquer an enemy with violence?
(a) Reduce the enemy and the self to things.
(b) Recognize that the use of violence will be met with the same.
(c) Subject freedom to demands for violence.
(d) Adopt the Aesthetic Attitude.

7. How does Beauvoir explain that an individual might be responsible for what they accept, but not guilty for acting upon it?
(a) An individual is responsible for what he learns because he takes time to learn it, but he is not guilty for those who face unintended consequences.
(b) An individual is responsible for what he learns in the world because he is responsible for his presence, but he is not guilty if his adhesion to beliefs is not a resignation of his freedom.
(c) An individual is responsible for what he learns because he can reject it, but he is not guilty for actions that come from his teaching.
(d) An individual is responsible for what he learns because he applies it, but he is not guilty because those who are affected have freedom to reject him.

8. What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "...festivals (that) stop the movement of transcendence?"
(a) Noted festivals through history note the coming decadence and collapse of the societies that embraced them.
(b) Pagan festivals that adopt Christian labels ignore the conflict between the two.
(c) The festivals celebrating the liberation of Paris exalted the end of the history of Nazi occupation of Paris.
(d) Christian festivals that have been implemented during pagan observations separate Christian doctrine from its literary roots.

9. What type of individual does Beauvoir claim adopts the Aesthetic Attitude?
(a) One who only contemplates his freedom while he is among others.
(b) One who claims to have no other relation with the world than that of detached contemplation.
(c) One who uses his freedom to guide others to consider the world in detached contemplation.
(d) One who detaches freedom from will.

10. According to Beauvoir, if every man is free:
(a) His will must remain free.
(b) He cannot will himself free.
(c) He is free to oppress the freedom of others.
(d) He must work to free other men.

11. What influence does Beauvoir claim revolt has on the world.
(a) Revolt does not wish to be integrated, but to break the world's continuity.
(b) Revolt affects even those who have adopted the Aesthetic Attitude and forces the realities of the world on every man.
(c) Revolt rises from a detachment from things and eventually leads to oppression through the desire to control things.
(d) Revolt rises from the recognition of oppression and brings freedom to the world.

12. What knowledge comes to the man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires and real will according to Beauvoir?
(a) He has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals.
(b) He knows freedom.
(c) He has grasped his ambiguity.
(d) He has reached transcendence.

13. How does the type of future facing individual humans affect civilizations such as Ancient Greece and Rome, according to Beauvoir?
(a) They all come to an end.
(b) They all survive by effectively winning wars.
(c) Their future is secured by eradicating the future of their enemies.
(d) They make their futures more secure by seeking to provide freedom to their citizens.

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

15. How does Beauvoir suggest that the ends can justify the means.
(a) Only if those taking action consider the consequences before they take action.
(b) Only if the focus of those taking action are on the future.
(c) Only if the end is completely disclosed in the course of the present enterprise.
(d) Only if the motivations of those taking action are on full display.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Beauvoir claim is revealed through art?

2. How does Beauvoir illustrate her example proves her point that, "festivals stop the movement of transcendence?"

3. Upon what does Beauvoir claim existence is based?

4. What does Beauvoir claim is needed to make an ethical choice in a complex situation?

5. In the challenge for those who suffer more than one oppressor, what answer does Beauvoir offer?

(see the answer keys)

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