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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Beauvoir define nihilism?
(a) Nihilism is disappointed seriousness which has been turned back upon itself.
(b) Nihilism is the point at which existentialists realize that reality is not framed by their thoughts.
(c) Nihilism is the point of nothingness that is felt at the point that the serious man reaches his goals.
(d) Nihilism is the recognition of the sub-man that he has no purpose outside of what has been defined for him.

2. How does Beauvoir suggest a child has a state of security?
(a) By virtue of the adults who control his life.
(b) By virtue of the fantasy world he creates in his mind.
(c) By virtue of his hopes for the future.
(d) By virtue of his very insignificance.

3. By quoting Dostoyevsky ("If God does not exist, then everything is permitted"), what examination does Beauvoir make?
(a) The role of a dualistic spiritual existence in directing passion.
(b) The role of the physical world on the development of a moral code.
(c) The role of an external moral code in extinguishing passions.
(d) The role of the existence of God in defining the existence of man and the world.

4. What role does time play what Beauvoir identifies as the ability to will oneself free?
(a) Time allows the accumulation of spontaneous acts to define their direction.
(b) The goal of freedom is pursued and confirmed in time.
(c) Time is required for the individual to understand that he is free.
(d) The individual uses time to manipulate the physical world to exercise his freedom.

5. Beauvoir claims that critics of existentialism claim that it is solipsistic. What is solipsism?
(a) The theory that only the physical life exists and matter is eternal.
(b) The theory that life is replicated on many planets in many worlds.
(c) The theory that only the self (mind) exists or can be proven to exist.
(d) The theory that life is nothing more than a creation in the mind of God.

Short Answer Questions

1. What irony does Beauvoir suggest contributes to the most optimistic ethics.

2. How does Beauvoir explain how the passionate man different from the adventurer man?

3. How does Beauvoir explain the differences between the conditions of Western women from that of children?

4. What does Beauvoir identify as the spirit of seriousness?

5. How does Beauvoir explain that Marxists perceive that acts can be regarded as good or bad?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Beauvoir characterize Materialists?

2. How does Beauvoir explain the characteristic feature of all ethics?

3. How does Beauvoir explain that adult lives can slip by in an infantile world?

4. How does Beauvoir describe the difference between Marxists and existentialist?

5. What does Beauvoir suggest to be a flaw in Existential philosophy?

6. To what does Beauvoir credit the development of many different philosophical world views?

7. What does Beauvoir point out as the difference between the passionate man and the adventurer?

8. How does Beauvoir claim that man can disclose being?

9. What faces the adolescent who is being liberated from the infantile world, according to Beauvoir?

10. What does Beauvoir note has been claimed of the nature of existentialism as a philosophy?

(see the answer keys)

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