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

2. How does Beauvoir claim an individual can put himself on the plane of the universal and the infinite?
(a) By considering a system abstractly and theoretically.
(b) By considering the ambiguity of their decisions.
(c) By assuring the means and the ends justify each other.
(d) By taking goals that will transcend their lives.

3. What does Beauvoir report to be Marx' view of the future?
(a) The future will only begin when the socialist state ends prehistory and begins real history.
(b) The future can only be affected if one accepts the validity of the projects they take as contributing to it.
(c) The future is not stationary because the mind is restless and the struggle for the future never ceases.
(d) The future is organic because it is built on the lives and sacrifices of the past.

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

5. How does Beauvoir claim a goal is defined?
(a) It is defined along the road which leads to it.
(b) It is defined by its transcendence.
(c) It is defined by the motivations of those who form the goal.
(d) It is defined by the benefits it provides to those who seek it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the four items that Beauvoir identifies as the "indefinite conquests of existence over being"?

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

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

4. What does Beauvoir note to be the objection of oppressors who are facing overthrow for the cause of freedom?

5. What influence does Beauvoir claim revolt has on the world.

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Beauvoir claim that we can best secure our personal freedom?

2. What is the contradiction that Beauvoir states regarding the difficulty of living the in the modern age?

3. Why does Beauvoir suggest man's life must always be an energetic striving?

4. What are the two meanings that Beauvoir gives for the future?

5. What does Beauvoir claim becomes of those who adopt the Aesthetic Attitude?

6. How does Beauvoir criticize the claim that life is absurdity?

7. What does Beauvoir mean when she says life id ambiguous?

8. How does the individual who claims to have adopted the Aesthetic Attitude view historical work, according to Beauvoir?

9. How does Beauvoir dispute the idea that individual freedom does not lead to anarchy?

10. How does Beauvoir relate death to life?

(see the answer keys)

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