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

2. Upon what does Beauvoir claim existence is based?
(a) Freedom.
(b) Doing something.
(c) Ambiguity.
(d) Goals.

3. What is the meaning that Beauvoir gives to Festivals?
(a) Societies use festivals to exalt their virtues.
(b) Individuals in festivals attempt to escape the uncertainty of the future.
(c) Politicians use festivals to obscure their oppression.
(d) Existence attempts in festivals to confirm itself as positive.

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

5. 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 meant to understand the beauty of freedom.
(c) It is a way of fleeing the truth of the present.
(d) It is taken so the individual can reflect on the role of the will in using freedom.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Beauvoir claim to be the only means by which the present can retrieve itself?

2. What are the two clans that Beauvoir claims to come from oppression?

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

4. What example does Beauvoir use to illustrate "The Antinomies of Action"?

5. How does Beauvoir claim that the individual with the Aesthetic Attitude regard his role in history?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Beauvoir characterize the world at the beginning of Section III?

2. What is the one solution that Beauvoir offers to the oppressed?

3. What is the contradiction that Beauvoir states regarding the difficulty of living the in the modern age?

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

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

6. What is the main criticism that Beauvoir makes of the Aesthetic Attitude?

7. Why does Beauvoir suggest man's life must always be an energetic striving?

8. What is an example that Beauvoir uses to illustrate the "Antinomies of Action"?

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

10. How does Beauvoir claim living as an existentialist would affect men?

(see the answer keys)

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