Simone de Beauvoir Response Paper

604 Words3 Pages
W. Robert Raison Professor Kalouche Philosophy 216 15 March 2013 Simone de Beauvoir Response Paper In her book The Ethics of Ambiguity, her writing showed the influence her “lover” Jean-Paul Sartre had on her based of their views about existentialism. She has provided me with much information about ambiguity and uses historical references to back up her theories. Though she talks about ethics and morals she still obliges by the existential motto coined by Sartre that “Existence Proceeds Essence.” [Sartre] Her book really questions oneself on how they conduct themselves as an individual and towards others in society. The Ethics of Ambiguity is consisted of 3 main points in the book, those being: Everything is a movement, Means & Ends, and the transcendence of individuality. In the beginning of her book she discusses what ambiguity and freedom are based off of an existential perspective. Beauvoir starts off by saying “The notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity and ambiguity does not have a fixed meaning, that it must be constantly won” [Beauvoir. 413] Since we are constantly creating ourselves, “…our action(s) has to be lived in its truth…” thus saying we must be fully aware or “conscious” of actions we commit because they have the potential to affect others positively or negatively [Beauvoir. 415] Life is determined how and what we put into it based off of multiple factors such friends, family, and/or our emotions at the current moment. One of her main arguments is that humans are fundamentally free and there is no a priori and that freedom is derived from nothingness. Nothingness comes from mental awareness of oneself and we often deal with facticity. That being as free individuals we have the ability to choose how we act and social institutions limit the freedoms we have such as speech. As humans, we must act as our

More about Simone de Beauvoir Response Paper

Open Document