The Bonds of Freedom: Simone de Beauvoir's Existentialist Ethics

by Kristana Arp

Simone de Beauvoir published a number of philosophical essays and novels before writing The Second Sex. The most important of these was The Ethics of Ambiguity, in which she argues that one’s freedom is always intertwined with that of others. The Bonds of Freedom examines de Beauvoir’s ideas on ethics, demonstrating her importance in contemporary philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

177 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2001

Reviews

[Kamakana]

250714: fascinating overview of de beauvoir's ethics, as developed, as explained, in her earlier work The Ethics of Ambiguity. her particular system-like ethics is strongly compared with sartrean ethics as devised by his followers, not himself, and this shows how much she extends his ontology as framework. specifically in her conception of three sorts of freedom: 1) ontological, 2) power, 3) moral. 1) is Sartre 2) real world 3) choice. for her, these are intertwined, are effective, in the ambiguity of being object/material and at the same time subject/ideal...

and her five moral 'types' of humans, in ascending order: sub-human, serious man, nihilist, adventurer, passionate, an order reflecting how within themselves and for others, they accept, they enact, they are responsible for, their inalienable original freedom. sub-human denies his freedom, serious man cleaves to already existing codes of social idea freedom, nihilist denies validity of any code, any freedom, adventurer proclaims his own inflexible but arbitrary code, passionate man creates his code for everyone...helps to have read Sartre, but is much beyond his notes, his work, and the sartrean ideals...

her ethics is compared and clearly outlined as her own thought, even if she claimed it was all Sartre, and shows her working on it, emergent, through her earlier essays, her fiction, before 'ambiguity' and how it leads to The Second Sex. this could be another text. this is pleasure in reading her in the act of philosophizing...