This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3, The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Sections 4-5, The Present and the Future, Ambiguity and Conclusion.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Beauvoir claim that Marxists consider man's actions to be valid?
(a) Only if the man has not helped initiate his action by an internal movement or through free will.
(b) Only if the actions are in opposition of the bourgeois.
(c) Only if the actions eliminate private property.
(d) Only if the actions support the revolution of the proletariat.

2. What comes to the individual at the point he begins to notice the conflicts of the adult world, according to Beauvoir?
(a) The individual must at last assume his subjectivity.
(b) The individual has the choice of holding to existentialist myths or accepting his ambiguity.
(c) The individual can pursue freedom or seriousness.
(d) The individual faces the daunting challenge of pursuing ethics that have none of the inconsistencies that have plagued societies through history.

3. How does Beauvoir explain that the serious man becomes a dangerous tyrant?
(a) The consequences of his choices to devote himself to his goal requires that he direct the choices of those around him.
(b) His choice to reject the ambiguity of his freedom combined with the desire to achieve his goal drives him to subject those in his environment to nothing more than instruments of achievement.
(c) He ignores the subjectivity of his choice and sacrifices the freedom of others to achieve his goals.
(d) His ultimate goal is always to exert power over other people and usurp their freedom to his purposes.

4. What is a flaw that Beauvoir claims some people make about their present situation regarding the natures of human nature and the present?
(a) Some believe that since the present conflicts with the nature of thought, that morality has no purpose.
(b) Since no one can fully occupy the present, many obsess on either the past or on future things.
(c) Some serenely believe that the future is in the hands of a benevolent God, therefore they pursue no worthwhile projects in the present.
(d) Some serenely think that the present oppression has no importance, and that oppression will be wiped out by itself.

5. What does Descartes credit man's unhappiness to, according to Beauvoir?
(a) His lack of freedom.
(b) The inner conflict between doing right and doing what he wants.
(c) Having first been a child.
(d) His inability to accept his ambiguity.