The Ethics Of Ambiguity
by Simone de Beauvoir
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 153)
Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
Bourgeois or peti-bourgeois readers as far as background and serious studiers of philosophy
““If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” Today’s believers use this formula for their own advantage. To re-establish man at the heart of his destiny is, they claim, to repudiate all ethics. However, far from God’s absence authorizing all license, the contrary is the case, because man is abandoned on the earth, because his acts are definitive, absolute engagements. He bears the responsibility for a world which is not the work of a strange power, but of himself, where his ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Craig by:
Prof. Russon I guessrecommends it for: anyone interested in philosophy
This is one of my favorite books, and definitely my favorite philosophy book. It is by far one of the best books on existentialism. As you can tell from looking at the length of the book, she is very concise in her writing. This is a good thing as you don't have to put up with the fluff that some philosophers seem to enjoy so much. Don't be fooled by the length - this is not an easy read. I've read it 3 times and constantly want to go back for more because I get something new each time. For thos...more
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Read in August, 2008
This is a good companion to Sartre's ‘Being and Nothingness’ as it simplifies and abbreviates B & N while using it as a reference throughout. There is much use of philosophical terminology that can stump you if you weren't a philosophy major. Overall it sheds some light on the morals of man, the reasoning behind war / war crimes and the true definition of freedom. Although written several decades ago, the references and comparisons have eerie similarities to our current political time
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Read in May, 2008
It is indeed a tour de force on de Beauvoir's part to succeed in turning the absurdity of the human condition into a dialectic of ambiguity which proposes that "we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite." This book is actually a very uplifting and liberating book which does not propose an evasion from our human condition but a way to transcend it.
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Read in September, 2007
When I read dense philosophy, I usually read it twice. The first time I read it all the way through quickly, as if I were reading fiction, in order to pick up the main ideas. The second time, I read it more closely, which takes longer, but I'm able to then probe deeper and gain a more full understanding of the work. I'm on the second phase with this book.
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Read in December, 2007
I finished this book at five in the morning, just before passing out! I was reading it for a paper I had to write for existentialism, though I might have read it for fun otherwise. It was a quick and interesting read, though dry in some places. She addresses the question of whether there can be an existentialist ethics quite effectively, I thought.
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Read in August, 2008
Definately the most readable overview of existentialism around, and a good crack at what an existential ethics would mean. She twists herself up in knots trying to cope with Stalinism, but other than that is philosophically consistent in her political approach.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
ethicists with a strong willingness to underline and write in margins.
Shortly after reading this book, I went to a Halloween party as Simone de Beauvoir. Which pretty much meant I got drunk and spoke French, but the upshot is that I loved her ideas enough to want to be like her. Or at least have her approve of my actions.
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Dense philosophical study about existentialism and other topics, nowhere near as hard to read as Being and Nothingness (Sartre) but still a bit of a tough one.
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I am pretty sure I read this in school but will need to re-visit it one of these days if I am to have any real memory of it.
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Read in January, 2006
Clearest book on the philosophy of existentialism I've ever tried to read. Cleared up mistakes of Sartre and Camus.
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Manages to create a more complete and more sympathetic model of existentialism in a third of the pages Sartre needed.
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