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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. What is a principle that Beauvoir states that an ethics of ambiguity will refuse to deny a priori?
(a) That, by definition, "ethics of ambiguity" must remained undefined.
(b) That separate existants can be bound to each other, such as individual freedoms can forge laws valid for all.
(c) That the most important element of "ethics of ambiguity" is to disallow them from defining the conduct of those outside their understanding.
(d) That "ethics of ambiguity" are as solipsistic as is existentialism.

2. What does Beauvoir claim comes of the man who does not use his the necessary instruments to escape the lie of his serious life that prevents his freedom?
(a) He is no longer a man, but a father, a boss, a member of the Christian Church or the Communist party.
(b) He is condemned to living a life in which all his ethics, morality, and decisions are made for him.
(c) He becomes a "sub-man" who has no more purpose in existing than pebbles or trees.
(d) He slips back into the defined existence of a child.

3. How does Beauvoir define the relationship of the "sub-man" to ethics and facticity?
(a) The "sub-man" accepts ethics as the facticity of his existence as unchangeable.
(b) The "sub-man" rejects the ambiguity of ethics as influences over his facticity.
(c) The "sub-man" considers ethics and facticity as interchangeable.
(d) The "sub-man" rejects ethics and feels only the facticity of his existence.

4. What type of man does Beauvoir identify as being nihilistic?
(a) The man who disputes the seriousness of another man's goals to the point that his goals are regarded as generally useless as a consequence.
(b) When a man who faces failure becomes conscious of being unable to be anything and decides to be nothing.
(c) The man who sees the futility of his goals and realizes he has missed the benefits of his ambiguity.
(d) The point at which the serious man realizes the pursuit of his goals have been made at the expense of his freedom.

5. What does Beauvoir claim to be the affect of rejecting any extrinsic justification for internal choices?
(a) Such rejection would lead to the erosion of any social order that makes choice useful.
(b) Such rejection would also reject the original pessimism which she seeks to address with her work.
(c) Such rejection also eliminates any standard by which choices are determined to be useful.
(d) Such rejection also removes the motivations upon passions are fueled.

Short Answer Questions

1. At what time does Beauvoir suggest that children begin to notice the contradictions, hesitations and weaknesses of adults?

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

3. Why does Beauvoir claim that some individuals have lives that slip into an infantile world?

4. What does Beauvoir identify as the irony of the serious man?

5. By quoting Dostoyevsky ("If God does not exist, then everything is permitted"), what examination does Beauvoir make?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Beauvoir define the child's world?

2. What type of adults does Beauvoir claim stays in an infantile world?

3. How does Beauvoir claim one can avoid nihilism?

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

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

6. Upon what basis does Beauvoir suggest that a man decides upon what he wants to be?

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

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

9. With what quote from Descartes does Beauvoir begin Section II?

10. How does Beauvoir explain that willing bad is possible?

(see the answer keys)

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