|
Sartre
was a leading advocate of existentialism -
the view that we must establish our own dignity, despite a meaningless
life.
Sartre's
existentialism faces the evil in human existence and
sees that humans are responsible for it. He doubts man can make
moral progress, yet he embraces the possibilities for human
life. Mankind
is radically free and responsible. In every moment
we choose ourselves; beyond this, we find no instructions for
our lives. No external authority gives life meaning, so Sartre's
existentialism is boldly atheistic.
"Existence"
hides behind the way we see and talk about it. Conscious life
is a type of "Nothingness"; we determine what we now
are by the way we project the "not yet" of the future
(we are not what we are, and we are what we are
not.) Anguish before the future is one way we experience
our radical freedom. We're not determined by outside forces;
we constantly choose and re-choose ourselves with no assurance
that we have a continuing identity or power. So we set up determinisms
to ease our minds.
An
unstable and unpredictable human condition afflicts all human
relations. We can't escape our involvement with others; conflict
is inevitable. Death is the ultimate limit; the end of consciousness
is the end of meaning.
Simone
De Beauvoir is a towering figure in twentieth-century
philosophy and feminism. There are more women philosophers alive
today than in all prior history, and their perspective brings
fresh approaches to old problems.
De
Beauvoir is best known for her association with the French
Existentialist movement of the 1940s (a close relationship
with Jean-Paul Sartre), and for the book that many claim gave
birth to the feminist theory in the twentieth century, The
Second Sex. Beauvoir was trained as a philosopher; she was
the ninth woman in France ever to receive a doctorate in philosophy
and, in 1929 at the age of twenty-one, the youngest person ever
to earn the degree. But throughout her life, she thought of
herself primarily as a novelist.
Beauvoir
held firmly to the basic principle of Existentialism, that human
beings are in no way bound by any kind of natural law or divine
plan. We are free to create ourselves out of the resources in
our society and environment; over time, our choices make us
who and what we are. Thus the central philosophical question
for Beauvoir is always: How shall I live? She is concerned always
with ethics: values, choices, and actions. She believes that
we are radically free, yet also finite; her work (especially
The Second Sex) explores the tensions that exist between our
liberty and our finitude, between our inalienable freedom to
choose and the constraints imposed by the choices of others.
Freedom for all must be our highest value - for without it,
we lose our very humanity.
|
