Unit 8: Simone de Beauvoir
A novelist, social critic, and philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was trained in philosophy and wrote her graduate thesis on the German logician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). Her influential feminist work, The Second Sex (1949), is of particular note. She extended previous existential theory into the social and political realms. She developed a philosophy based on existentialist ethics and feminist theory that would have a lasting influence on the feminist political movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Like previous existentialists, de Beauvoir emphasized the importance of individual freedom to human existence. However, unlike the existentialists before her, she argued that individual freedom was only possible if others were also free. In other words, de Beauvoir believed that equitable social relations are required for meaningful freedom. In this unit, we discuss de Beauvoir's existentialist ethics and feminism.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify Simone de Beauvoir's role in the history of existentialism;
- summarize de Beauvoir's existentialist ethics;
- define de Beauvoir's notions of woman and the feminine; and
- analyze de Beauvoir's applied existentialism.
8.1: Simone de Beauvoir's Role in Existentialism
De Beauvoir was active in France's mid-century intellectual circles. She was not only a philosopher but also a memoirist, novelist, playwright, travel writer, and reporter. The breadth of her authorship is evidence of her existential commitment to being in the world. While Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) claimed she was "the midwife of Sartre's existential ethics" (Debra Befgoffen). She described herself as an author rather than a philosopher. Her place in the history of existentialism is based on the strength of her original ideas. While she and Sartre worked closely together and deeply influenced each other's thoughts, de Beauvoir's work stands on its own merits.
Scholars debate how Beauvoir and Sartre influenced one another and struggle to disentangle the contributions of each philosopher, which followed 50 years of "discussions and critiques of each other's work". Did de Beauvoir merely elaborate on Sartre's thinking, as she maintained? Did Sartre "steal" the core concepts in Being and Nothingness from de Beauvoir's novel She Came to Stay (also published in 1943)? Their letters and de Beauvoir's diaries do not settle the matter. However, readers study de Beauvoir's literary and philosophical output to decide which philosophical ideas are her own.
Read this article. Pay special attention to how de Beauvoir's philosophy connected to previous existentialists and took existentialism into new exciting realms. How were her contributions unique to existentialism and the wider social movements developing during her time?
8.2: De Beauvoir's Existentialist Ethics
De Beauvoir first developed her existential ethics in an essay called "Pyrrhus et Cinéas" (1944), which described a war-torn France trying to emerge from the shadows of World War II. In this dense philosophical text, she focused her existential ethics on one's ethical responsibility to oneself, others, and oppressed groups. Her writing incorporates themes from Hegel, Heidegger, Spinoza, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre. However, de Beauvoir both criticizes and admires these philosophers. For example, she criticizes Heidegger's emphasis on being-toward-death as undermining the need to establish projects that are goals in themselves rather than simply projections toward death.
Unlike existentialists such as Nietzsche and Sartre, her concept of individual freedom includes ethical considerations of other free subjects in the world. According to de Beauvoir, living in the world can feel oppressive and objective, yet the "other" can reveal our fundamental freedom. Without a God to guarantee morality, it is up to the individual to form bonds with other people through ethical action. Our bonds with others require us to engage in activities that express our own freedom (and thus responsibility) while encouraging the freedom of fellow humans.
De Beauvoir constructs an ethical framework that emphasizes freedom, responsibility, and ambiguity, expressing existentialist themes. Unlike Sartre, who perceives the other as a threat to one's freedom, de Beauvoir perceives the other as a necessary axis of one's freedom – without our relationships with other people, we cannot be free. De Beauvoir is concerned with issues of oppression that are largely absent in existentialist philosophy to elucidate existentialist ethics.
As you read this encyclopedia entry on de Beauvoir, pay attention to the discussion of de Beauvoir's literary fiction and how it served as a vehicle for her philosophical ideas. What is the role of the other in individual human existence? Do we have any responsibility toward the other? If so, what exactly is that responsibility? Do we have an ethical responsibility to acknowledge and act on this responsibility?
Watch this video about de Beauvoir's life and works. Was there anything that surprised you about her life and career trajectory? What aspects of de Beauvoir's life and career would make you classify her as an existential philosopher?
8.3: The Ethics of Ambiguity
In her book The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), de Beauvoir builds on themes she introduced in her essay, "Pyrrhus et Cinéas". She demonstrates her long-standing concerns with freedom, oppression, and responsibility, her philosophical grasp of history, and her unique contributions. De Beauvoir suggests that there is no reason for humans to exist and, as a result, no predetermined human essence or standard of value. She expounds on the idea that human freedom requires the freedom of others to be realized and continues with her concern about freedom, oppression, and responsibility.
De Beauvoir writes:
From the very beginning, existentialism defined itself as a philosophy of ambiguity. It was by affirming the irreducible character of ambiguity that Kierkegaard opposed himself to Hegel, and it is by ambiguity that, in our own generation, Sartre, in Being and Nothingness, fundamentally defined man, that being whose being is not to be, that subjectivity which realizes itself only as a presence in the world, that engaged freedom, that surging of the for-oneself which is immediately given for others. But it is also claimed that existentialism is a philosophy of the absurd and of despair. It encloses man in a sterile anguish, in an empty subjectivity. It is incapable of furnishing him with any principle for making choices. Let him do as he pleases. In any case, the game is lost.
– The Ethics of Ambiguity, Ch. 1, p. 2A human being's lived experience is one of ambiguity. For example, at the most basic level, we are aware of our death as we live. Our awareness of life and death leads us to further realize the ethical implications of the ambiguity of human existence. Rather than try to "mask" or propose an imaginary solution, such as an immortal soul, the ethics of ambiguity contemplates the difficulty head-on.
The fallibility of humans makes ethics possible by giving us an ideal to pursue. In other words, our fallibility should not prompt us to give up on improvement. Rather, our fallibility gives us reason to think about what improvement should look like.
As you watch this video, pay attention to the role ethics plays in existential theory. How does de Beauvoir frame her ethical existential critique? What are the strengths and weaknesses of de Beauvoir's characterization of ambiguity and how she uses it in her argument? How does ambiguity characterize human existence, according to de Beauvoir?
8.4: De Beauvoir's Notions of Woman and the Feminine
De Beauvoir is best known for her revolutionary magnum opus, The Second Sex (1949), which was well-received due to the lack of feminist theory and fiercely criticized (the Vatican added it to their list of prohibited books). The main thesis is that men have long oppressed women because they are his "other". Like Sartre and Hegel, de Beauvoir agreed that the self needs otherness to define itself. However, self-understanding through alterity should be reciprocal. But what actually happens is that men – who assume the role of the self – consistently define women as the other. As Beauvoir explains, woman "is the incidental, the inessential, as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute – she is the Other". Woman is not man's equal but his inferior. According to de Beauvoir, the difference should not equate to inequality.
De Beauvoir investigates how this radically-inequitable relationship among genders arose and what structures, attitudes, and presuppositions continue to sustain social power. De Beauvoir argues that patriarchal societies have generated impossible standards of femininity that frequently conflict. These measures permeate all aspects of European literary, social, political, economic, and religious traditions.
Recall that Du Bois discussed the internal and external struggle of people of color, while De Beauvoir expands upon Du Bois' ideas of "double consciousness" to include the oppression of women and their fight for freedom. She calls women's experience within realms of oppression the notion of "other". Both believed that neither women nor people of color are born into their status as inferior, but they are socially forced into cultural subordination. In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir even states, "'The eternal feminine' corresponds to 'the Black soul' and to 'the Jewish character'". De Beauvoir wants to emancipate women from the private realms while recognizing the linkages in social positions and ultimately escape from the inferior position of "Other".
As you read this overview of de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, pay close attention to the historical story she gives about the development of woman as "the other" of man. What is an abstract concept, according to de Beauvoir? How is woman an abstract concept? Also, consider how, according to Sartre and de Beauvoir, no one is born with a predetermined essence: You become who you are. What does de Beauvoir mean when she suggests that a person is not born a woman but becomes one?
8.5: De Beauvoir's Applied Existentialism
According to de Beauvoir, the phrase "applied existentialism" is redundant. Broadly construed as a philosophy of existence, existentialism is always concerned with being in the world or being human. We can think about the phrase in terms of de Beauvoir's existentialism, as honing in on the ways that our being (not ontologically-distinct substances, such as a Cartesian mind and body) runs up against the restrictions of our situation. This is not to say de Beauvoir rejects the radical freedom Sartre presents in his work, but she incorporates the phenomenology or the lived experience of being in the world as a person who cannot ignore their situation.
The concept of applied existentialism is particularly evident in de Beauvoir's argument against an abstract concept of "woman" in her book The Second Sex. There is no "woman", only individuals living under oppression. Another way to explain this is to think of de Beauvoir's monumental contribution to feminism and apply existentialism to the problem of patriarchy.
The French West Indian philosopher and psychiatrist Franz Fanon (1925–1961) was a fierce critic of colonialism and the violence that came with it. He condemned physical and conceptual violence, including how many use language to oppress, marginalize, and hurt others. Consider the differences and similarities between Fanon and de Beauvoir. In what ways does de Beauvoir's existentialism encourage or lead to revolutionary action?
Unit 8 Assessment
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