Simone de Beauvoir as a Philosopher: Freedom

 “Now in the 20th century, her truly philosophical side has begun to be accepted.”

Simone de Beauvoir is considered as a writer, anthropologist, or a journalist, but people generally missed her philosophical side. Because of this attitude, her nonfiction works are sometimes (deliberate or unintentional) considered popular, rather than scholarly or ethical. There are 2 reasons why she was not recognized as a philosopher. First of all she is a woman, she was a Sartre’s lover, and secondly she wrote about women. However, despite all this, she considered her works philosophical.(A Spanish Revolutionist A World Ambassador Neruda)

Her first philosophical essay was published in 1944. In this essay, she addresses fundamental ethical, freedom and politic matters such as: What is ethical action and what are its criteria, how to distinguish between ethical and unethical political formations, what are the principles of ethical relations, and can violence be justified-legitimate?  We can clearly see the existential-phenomenological perspective at the root of all these questions but above all, “Freedom” plays a central role in this work.

“A lonely human in the world is paralyzed by the arrogance of all his goals. But human is not alone in the world”

Searching for answers to ontological and existential questions, Beauvoir; she begins to seek her first answer by saying that she is a finite freedom whose ends are always and compulsory new beginnings.  She said that while living oneself and one self’s freedom, the person should also take care of others. This also gives us a clue from her political perspective. Freedom is critical at this point. No one is independent of anyone’s freedom, since freedom is the right of everyone and exists in everyone. Whether one is a murderer or an executioner, no one cannot destroy the freedom within and interfere with it. So then if freedom is in the essence of human, what is the essence of freedom?

Beauvoir illustrates that the essence of freedom is to be contingent. Humans reside in a world of value, meaning, and lives in this world; but these meanings and values are created by others. People can accept, reject or change these values and meanings because they are free. Because, the meaning of the world is shaped by people’s choices. Whatever people’s choices are, they cannot be supported without the help of others. Their value can only exist if others adopt it. In other words, one needs others in order to be free, and to change or shape the values of the world. The freedoms, choices of others, and the limits of each other must be known.

Because, according to Beauvoir, if we have a common idea about the meaning of freedom; we accept our freedom, its limitations and possibilities, its failures or achievements, we learn to truly live. To live knowing our freedom and without violating the freedom of others is called living.

References

Beauvoir, S. d. (1944). Pyrrhus and Cinéas.

Bergoffen, D. (27, March 2020). Simone de Beauvoir. Retrieved January 9, 2021, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://seop.illc.uva.nl/entries/beauvoir/

Heinamaa, S. (1999). Simon de Beauvoiris Phenomenelogy of Sexual Difference. Hypatia , 114-132.

Tidd, U. (1999). The Self-Other Relation in Beauvoir’s Ethics and Autobiography. Wiley , 163-174.