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!

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

The calm before the storm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How does Beauvoir claim an individual can prevent life from being defined as an escape toward nothingness? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion)

Projects must be taken in consideration of their consequences.

All goals must consider the ambiguity of all life.

Impossible or utopian goals must not be set.

Existence must be asserted in the present.

What contradiction does Beauvoir suggest will come to those who fight for a cause due to the complexity of the world? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 1-3, The Aesthetic Attitude, Freedom and Liberation, The Antinomies of Action)

In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to the point of fighting against valid causes.

In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to face a humiliating defeat.

In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to sacrifice his principles.

In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to leaving a valued friend.

When an individual aims at a goal that will be achieved beyond his own death, what does Beauvoir claim the individual should expect from the time given to the goal? (from Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion)

The individual should expect his virtues to be challenged through his effort.

The individual should expect a festival be given in his honor.

The individual should expect those who share his vision accept his means.

The individual should not expect anything of that time for which he worked.