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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. Why does Beauvoir suggest that the idea of the ambiguity of existence should not be considered absurd?
(a) Because clinging to labeling challenging ideas as absurd only limits intellectual investigation.
(b) Because to consider the ambiguity of existence as absurd is, itself, absurd.
(c) Because to consider the ambiguity of existence absurd is to shut down debate that can define human existence.
(d) Because to consider the idea that human existence is ambiguous is to deny that human existence can ever be given a meaning.

2. What quote from Saint-Just does Beauvoir use to point out the paradox to the fight for freedom?
(a) "Power abhors a vacuum."
(b) "Power flows from the end of a gun."
(c) "No one governs innocently."
(d) "If one wants to break from a hard ruler, he must become a hard ruler."

3. What contradiction does Beauvoir suggest will come to those who fight for a cause due to the complexity of the world?
(a) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to face a humiliating defeat.
(b) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to leaving a valued friend.
(c) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to sacrifice his principles.
(d) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to the point of fighting against valid causes.

4. What does Beauvoir claim to be the meaning and substance of all action?
(a) The future.
(b) Existentialism.
(c) Freedom.
(d) Ambiguity.

5. What does Beauvoir assert to be the consequences of a world in which every man has to do with other men?
(a) The world is subject to the will of men who seek either freedom or oppression.
(b) The world is a human world in which each object is penetrated with human meanings.
(c) Every man must recognize that his freedom is only secured as long as no one attempts to oppress others.
(d) Every man must accept his ambiguity and will his freedom.

Short Answer Questions

1. Since human life is finite, with what does Beauvoir suggest the individual should concern himself?

2. What does Beauvoir mean when she writes, "...festivals whose role is to stop the movement of transcendence?"

3. How does Beauvoir compare the present to the future?

4. How does Beauvoir claim to be the only means by which the present can retrieve itself?

5. Why does Beauvoir suggest that if man waits for universal peace to establish his existence validly, he will wait indefinitely?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is an example that Beauvoir uses to illustrate the "Antinomies of Action"?

2. How does Beauvoir define the Aesthetic Attitude?

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

4. How does Beauvoir show that the complexity of the world affects those who are fighting for a cause?

5. How does Beauvoir represent the present in the face of the future?

6. How does Beauvoir relate death to life?

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

8. What is the main criticism that Beauvoir makes of the Aesthetic Attitude?

9. How does Beauvoir claim living as an existentialist would affect men?

10. How does Beauvoir characterize the world at the beginning of Section III?

(see the answer keys)

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