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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Beauvoir suggest to be the motivation of those who adopt the Aesthetic Attitude?
(a) It is a means of understanding the role of oppression in history.
(b) It is a way of fleeing the truth of the present.
(c) It is taken so the individual can reflect on the role of the will in using freedom.
(d) It is meant to understand the beauty of freedom.

2. How does Beauvoir claim to be the only means by which the present can retrieve itself?
(a) Through politicians who deny obvious truth so as to delay the consequences of their present decisions.
(b) Through similar events through history.
(c) By holding with an existentialist who has adopted the Aesthetic Attitude.
(d) By transcending itself toward the permanence of future being.

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 leaving a valued friend.
(b) In order to win an urgent victory, one may be brought to the point of fighting against valid causes.
(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 face a humiliating defeat.

4. How does Beauvoir claim that the individual with the Aesthetic Attitude regard his role in history?
(a) He considers himself outside of time, and does not belong to history.
(b) He considers his will to remain free to be the driving force of history.
(c) He considers his thoughts to form the existential material of history.
(d) He considers history to have no affect on his Aesthetic Attitude.

5. What type of future does Beauvoir recognize of humans?
(a) Humans have a future of struggle.
(b) Humans have a future that is defined by their antinomies.
(c) Humans have a finite future.
(d) Humans have a future that is defined by their desires to will themselves free.

6. According to Beauvoir, why does society exist?
(a) Society exists because like-minded people work to form institutions.
(b) Society exists because the mind exists.
(c) Society exists to distribute matter.
(d) Society exists only by the means of the existence of particular individuals.

7. If an individual does not inform a slave of his oppression, what does Beauvoir suggest of their position regarding tyranny?
(a) The individual who remains silent regarding tyranny assumes the Aesthetic Attitude.
(b) The individual who remains silent regarding tyranny is complicit in tyranny.
(c) The individual who remains silent regarding tyranny becomes a tyrant himself.
(d) The individual who remains silent regarding tyranny loses his will to be free.

8. What does Beauvoir note to be the objection of oppressors who are facing overthrow for the cause of freedom?
(a) By overthrowing their oppression, the freedom of oppressors is being deprived.
(b) Those who overthrow an oppressor are only seeking the power to oppress.
(c) Overthrowing the order of oppressors threatens to subject all to barbarism.
(d) Overthrowing oppressors will bring neophytes to incompetently administer the principles of law and justice.

9. What three considerations an individual make before acting are abstract, according to Beauvoir?
(a) Is the action ambiguous, is it mental, is it physical.
(b) Does the action lead to a goal, is it transcendent, will it affect the self.
(c) Is the action practical, is it good, is it bad.
(d) Is the action possible, is it future-oriented, will it affect the self.

10. At what point does Beauvoir declare the death of an individual is not a failure?
(a) When the cause for which he died preserves freedom for all.
(b) If the cause for which he died is carried on by his survivors.
(c) When it is integrated into a project which surpasses the limits of life.
(d) If his death leads to the victory of his cause.

11. 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?
(a) The individual should expect his virtues to be challenged through his effort.
(b) The individual should expect a festival be given in his honor.
(c) The individual should not expect anything of that time for which he worked.
(d) The individual should expect those who share his vision accept his means.

12. In the challenge for those who suffer more than one oppressor, what answer does Beauvoir offer?
(a) Only by working with the least offensive of the oppressors could other oppressors be removed.
(b) Overthrowing the oppressors is a matter of opportunity and efficiency.
(c) The issue is moral, not political, and the moral consensus must be reached with at least one oppressor.
(d) Only by generating full support of the masses could any of the oppressors be dispatched.

13. When does Beauvoir suggest an individual might adopt the Aesthetic Attitude?
(a) During efforts of an individual to will themselves free.
(b) When he recognizes that his freedom is secured when he is not with others.
(c) During moments of discouragement and confusion.
(d) During times of oppression.

14. How does Beauvoir explain that artists can betray their aim with their aesthetic justification?
(a) By facing the reality that their epiphanies found in their contemplation require action of creation before they can be seriously considered.
(b) By addressing an evil with a work for which the beauty is more regarded than the message.
(c) By the fact that their attempt to withdraw for the cause of aesthetics frequently lead to works that are used by the serious for their projects.
(d) By creating a project that removes them from their detachment and makes them part of history.

15. What does Beauvoir mean when she writes, "...festivals whose role is to stop the movement of transcendence?"
(a) The end has been set up as an end.
(b) Festivals become both a means and an end to obscure the meaninglessness of both the present and the future.
(c) Festivals marking a movement's success obscure the means used to attain the success.
(d) Festivals take people away from their future ambiguity.

Short Answer Questions

1. What knowledge comes to the man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires and real will according to Beauvoir?

2. How does Beauvoir summarize Hegel's view of the future?

3. How does Beauvoir claim a goal is defined?

4. What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "...festivals (that) stop the movement of transcendence?"

5. How does Beauvoir explain that an individual might be responsible for what they accept, but not guilty for acting upon it?

(see the answer keys)

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