SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
De Beauvoir grew up in a respected borgeois family, the eldest of two daughters.
She adopted atheism while still an adolescent, and decided to devote her life to
writing and studying.
She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1929, writing a thesis on Leibniz. Philosophy
was, for her a discussion and study of the essentials of existence-- though she
was also fascinated by beauty and aesthetics.
De Beauvoir taught high school while developing the basis for her philosophical
thought between 1931 and 1943. Following in the tradition of the 18th century 'gadfly'
philosophe's, De Beauvoir used her background in formal philosophy to voice her
sentiments on feminism and existentialism.
Jean-Paul Sartre and De beauvoir met after her studies in the Sorbonne, the
beginning of a friendship which lasted until his death in 1980. This period
began what she described as a 'moral' phase of life; the culmination of which
was her most important philosophical work, The Ethics of Ambiguity(1948). She
began the phase with an essay entitled Pyrrhus et Cineas(1944), and the earlier
novel called L'Envitee(1943).
No doubt born of the confusion and madness of WWII, De Beauvoir included in her
Ethics Sartre's ontology of being-for-itself and being-in-itself. She also draws
heavily on his conception of human beings as creatures who are free. Freedom of
choice, humanity's utmost value, is the criterion for morality and immorality in
one's acts. Good acts increase one's freedom, while bad ones limit that freedom.
No doubt, her linkage to Sartre was the reason that she received the unwanted
title of existentialist. Among other things, she also was an anti-colonialist,
publicly criticising France's position in Algiers, a pro-abortionist and a
socialist with Marxist sympathies.
Her major thrust into philosophical analysis was due to her life-long friendship
with Sartre. Using some of the ideas she worked with in Ethics and a few of the
underpinnings of existentialism as described by Sartre, she went on to produce
her famous work, The Second Sex. Working with the idea that women are the "other,"
and another statement: "that women is not born, but made," De Beauvoir delves
deep into the history of women's oppression. This was the definitive declaration
of woman's independence.
Her other works include a four part autobiography, a prize winning novel called
The Mandarins, and a novel condemning society for its treatment of the elderly,
The Coming of Age. Writing on her mother's death she produced A Very Easy Death.
One of her final novels was a diary recording the slow lingering death of her
friend Sartre, called Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre.
Her final words on Sartre's death(and her own, in Adieux) were:
"My death will not bring us together again. This is how things are. It is in
itself splendid that we were able to live our lives in harmony for so long."
De Beauvoir grew up in a respected borgeois family, the eldest of two daughters.
She adopted atheism while still an adolescent, and decided to devote her life to
writing and studying.
She graduated from the Sorbonne in 1929, writing a thesis on Leibniz. Philosophy
was, for her a discussion and study of the essentials of existence-- though she
was also fascinated by beauty and aesthetics.
De Beauvoir taught high school while developing the basis for her philosophical
thought between 1931 and 1943. Following in the tradition of the 18th century 'gadfly'
philosophe's, De Beauvoir used her background in formal philosophy to voice her
sentiments on feminism and existentialism.
Jean-Paul Sartre and De beauvoir met after her studies in the Sorbonne, the
beginning of a friendship which lasted until his death in 1980. This period
began what she described as a 'moral' phase of life; the culmination of which
was her most important philosophical work, The Ethics of Ambiguity(1948). She
began the phase with an essay entitled Pyrrhus et Cineas(1944), and the earlier
novel called L'Envitee(1943).
No doubt born of the confusion and madness of WWII, De Beauvoir included in her
Ethics Sartre's ontology of being-for-itself and being-in-itself. She also draws
heavily on his conception of human beings as creatures who are free. Freedom of
choice, humanity's utmost value, is the criterion for morality and immorality in
one's acts. Good acts increase one's freedom, while bad ones limit that freedom.
No doubt, her linkage to Sartre was the reason that she received the unwanted
title of existentialist. Among other things, she also was an anti-colonialist,
publicly criticising France's position in Algiers, a pro-abortionist and a
socialist with Marxist sympathies.
Her major thrust into philosophical analysis was due to her life-long friendship
with Sartre. Using some of the ideas she worked with in Ethics and a few of the
underpinnings of existentialism as described by Sartre, she went on to produce
her famous work, The Second Sex. Working with the idea that women are the "other,"
and another statement: "that women is not born, but made," De Beauvoir delves
deep into the history of women's oppression. This was the definitive declaration
of woman's independence.
Her other works include a four part autobiography, a prize winning novel called
The Mandarins, and a novel condemning society for its treatment of the elderly,
The Coming of Age. Writing on her mother's death she produced A Very Easy Death.
One of her final novels was a diary recording the slow lingering death of her
friend Sartre, called Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre.
Her final words on Sartre's death(and her own, in Adieux) were:
"My death will not bring us together again. This is how things are. It is in
itself splendid that we were able to live our lives in harmony for so long."