The Ethics of Ambiguity

by Simone de Beauvoir

“Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.” —Montaigne.

The word “useful” has not yet received a meaning on the level of description where Being and Nothingness is situated.

To exist genuinely is not to deny this spontaneous movement of my transcendence, but only to refuse to lose myself in it.

Man exists. For him it is not a question of wondering whether his presence in the world is useful, whether life is worth the trouble of being lived. These questions make no sense. It is a matter of knowing whether he wants to live and under what conditions.

One can not start by saying that our earthly destiny has or has not importance, for it depends upon us to give it importance. It is up to man to make it important to be a man, and he alone can feel his success or failure.