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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Beauvoir claim can come to people who are filled with the horror of defeat?

2. How does Beauvoir explain how goals supplant freedom in the life of the serious man?

3. What prevents a moral question from presenting itself to the child according to Beauvoir?

4. How does Beauvoir explain what Descartes meant when he said that the freedom of man is infinite, but this power is limited?

5. How does Beauvoir explain that a child, himself, is not serious?

Short Essay Questions

1. With what quote from Descartes does Beauvoir begin Section II?

2. How does Beauvoir describe the difference between Marxists and existentialist?

3. What does Beauvoir note has been claimed of the nature of existentialism as a philosophy?

4. How does Beauvoir claim that man can rise to a higher moral freedom?

5. How does Beauvoir relate nature of man's existence to the past, present, and future in Part I?

6. What are two descriptions that Beauvoir gives to man at the beginning of Part I, Ambiguity and Freedom?

7. How does Beauvoir explain that willing bad is possible?

8. How does Beauvoir explain that adult lives can slip by in an infantile world?

9. What does Beauvoir suggest causes the infantile world to begin to pass away by adolescence?

10. What does Beauvoir point out as the difference between the passionate man and the adventurer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Beauvoir claim that a "serious man" becomes nihilistic and what are the affects of nihilism on the individual? What are the consequences to the "serious man" if he resists the impulses that lead to nihilism? How does individual acceptance or rejection of nihilism influence an environment or community.

Essay Topic 2

Examine Beauvoir's views on how science, art, technology (technics), and philosophy can either add to or detract from freedom. After the general examination of the four, choose one and detail how Beauvoir's points are proven in modern applications.

Essay Topic 3

Does Beauvoir consider the source of oppression to be individuals or a natural state that people accept and use for their own purposes. Explain your answer with support from "The Ethics of Ambiguity" and at least one example from history or current events.

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This section contains 845 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample