Question

One of Sartre’s most important influences and conversation partners was Simone de Beauvoir. Research both her life and her main ideas, and explore similarities and differences between Beauvoir and Sartre. Do any of Beauvoir's ideas still apply today, and if so, which ones and why?

Answer 1

Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir are considered to be an intellectual couple of the 20^th century. Sartre is often referred to as the father of existentialism. Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, the sprawling 1949 tome that laid the intellectual foundation for second-wave feminism that exploded during the 1960s. They never shared a conventional/traditional relationship per se and weren’t married either. They famously had an open relationship. They were said to be engaging in a deep meaningful relationship who led independent lives, who met in cafés, where they wrote their books and saw their friends at separate tables... but who maintained a kind of soul marriage. Beauvoir's method incorporated various political and ethical dimensions. In The Ethics of Ambiguity, she developed an existentialist ethics that condemned the “spirit of seriousness” in which people too readily identify with certain abstractions at the expense of individual freedom and responsibility. In The Second Sex, she produced an articulate attack on the fact that throughout history women have been relegated to a sphere of “immanence,” and the passive acceptance of roles assigned to them by society. This is closely related to the wave of feminism and women empowerment effort that we see today. The fact that this was raised by her back then reiterates the idea that she broke stereotypes and came across as having her own mind. Sartre on the other hand provided his contributions to the field of existentialism which are prevalent today as well. Both these philosophers let behind a great deal of material that was pondered upon and later refined by other philosophers. The most fundamental doctrine of existentialism is the claim that—for human beings at least—existence precedes essence. As in atheism, Sartre demands that we completely abandon the traditional notion of human beings as the carefully designed artefacts of a divine creator. There is no abstract nature that one is destined to fill. Instead, each of us simply is in the world; what we will be is then entirely up to us. Being human just means having the capacity to create one's own essence in time. This gives human beings the agency to be a navigator of their own lives rather than having the locus of control on the outside.

The ideas of both philosophers are prevalent today for the reason that feminism, liberation and empowerment of women and existentialism are all phenomena that are reflected upon, debated, and utilised in many areas of the field.