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

2. How does Beauvoir define the present?
(a) The present is when the Aesthetic Attitude meets its most significant challenge.
(b) The present is the moment in which thought meets matter.
(c) The present is not a potential past, it is the moment of choice and action.
(d) The present is the point at which the will meets freedom.

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

4. How does Beauvoir compare the present to the future?
(a) As only negative which must be eliminated as such.
(b) As that moment that quickly passes both into the past and the future.
(c) The only point in time in which the individual can come to grasp their reality.
(d) The moment that, when combined with the line of the past, defines the ambiguity of freedom.

5. How does Beauvoir illustrate how ambiguity affected Christianity?
(a) She showed how poverty allowed a break from salvation through indulgences.
(b) She showed how interpretation of scripture was replaced by researching scripture.
(c) She illustrated that the Reformation challenged the seriousness of the Catholic Church with the Christian Spirit.
(d) She showed how works bound to the dead law were replaced with faith and charity.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are some of the causes that Beauvoir points out that oppressors will claim to defend in their battles against those who try to overthrow them?

2. Why does Beauvoir claim that no project can be considered to be purely contemplative?

3. How is Beauvoir asking each one to confirm their existence through the ethics of ambiguity?

4. What does Beauvoir claim to be necessary to the desire for the slave to become conscious of his servitude?

5. What are the two meanings that Beauvoir gives to the word future.

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Beauvoir relate death to life?

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

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

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

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

6. What is the example of the conservative that Beauvoir uses to illustrate how tyrants will attempt to prevent revolt?

7. What does Beauvoir identify as one of the chief objections leveled against existentialism with regard to freedom?

8. How does Beauvoir characterize freedom that is won through denying freedom to others?

9. How does ambiguity affect man when he faces failure and outrageousness, according to Beauvoir?

10. What does Beauvoir claim prevents the future from being considered a harmonious development?

(see the answer keys)

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