The Ethics of Ambiguity; Quiz

Take our free The Ethics of Ambiguity; quiz below, with 25 multiple choice questions that help you test your knowledge. Determine which chapters, themes and styles you already know and what you need to study for your upcoming essay, midterm, or final exam. Take the free quiz now!

What does Beauvoir claim is needed to make an ethical choice in a complex situation? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion)

Means that justify an end.

A strong sense of ambiguity.

Long analysis.

Transcendent goals.

According to Beauvoir, how is freedom present within the drama of choice? (from Chapter 2, Personal Freedom and Others)

Within the analysis that leads to a decision.

In the moment before consequences are evident.

Before the realization that a choice must be made.

Only in the form of contingency.

How do ethics of ambiguity avoid being solipsistic? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion)

Because the means of an end often affect more individual than the achievement of the end itself.

Because it demands that individuals engage matter in the pursuit of projects.

Because goals often transcend the life of the individual who initiates them.

By the fact that the individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and other individuals.

To what does Beauvoir compare the presence of freedom within the drama of choice? (from Chapter 2, Personal Freedom and Others)

The historian who chooses threads that take him to the original cause.

The calm before the storm.

The arbitrariness of the grace distributed by God in Calvinistic Doctrine.

The adolescent who sees the world constructed for him as a child is corrupt.

What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "The Antinomies of Action"? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 1-3, The Aesthetic Attitude, Freedom and Liberation, The Antinomies of Action)

That unwise action against oppressors taken without considering the future will lead to more vicious oppression by opportunists.

If those who lead actions against oppression are not under continual scrutiny, they will plan insurrections for their own benefit.

That the thinkers who can define the evils of oppression actually become oppressors by making people realize their plight but offering no action to correct it.

Men who commit violence against an oppressor for the cause of freedom become oppressors themselves and must reduce the oppressor as a thing to be removed.