The Ethics of Ambiguity: Exploring Simone de Beauvoir's Philosophical Ideas

H.Coles: Must read for all! She is a revolutionary thinker!

United States on Jul 08, 2023

Clare : Insightful and we'll written

United Kingdom on Jan 28, 2023

Amazon Kunde: While I am able to wrap my head around the presented ideas, the quality of the translation makes it hard to understand some of the text. Not being a native English or French speaker, I have difficulties with the sentence structure sometimes. First I thought I have to blame myself for not being able to understand more complicated philosophical writing but the grammar is also not entirely correct all the time and some sentences are unnecessarily long. (If you find any mistakes within this review: I am sorry, and I don't mean any harm and I don't mean to be a hypocrite. Just warning people who - like me - rely on very clear sentence structure).

Germany on Mar 07, 2022

Jesus: I found d it interesting to read something new from a different perspective. It has made me think of a lot different situations and asked myself about what would be right or wrong. I learned new theories from different people that I wasn't aware of. The only issued I had was that at times it was hard to follow the point of the chapter.

United States on Aug 02, 2021

Ami: Sometimes the philosophers are hard to get through but this book is a treat. Not difficult to read at all. The author has clear and well thought out arguments. She even explains key arguments from other schools of philosophy. I liked all the comparison to stoicism in particular: "one does not submit to a war or an occupation as he does to an earthquake: he must take sides..."

Overall this is an empowering read/philosophy: You are free! It's your responsibility to create the meaning of your life. Beware of pursuits that dehumanize or oppress humanity or individual freedoms: "a freedom which is interested only in denying freedom must be denied"

A good book if you're lost in the absurd. She's goes through several different ways of being lost: the 'sub-man', the 'serious man', the 'passionate man', etc.

Canada on Feb 03, 2021

R: ‘The Ethics of Ambiguity’ is one of the three authoritative philosophical short texts on existentialism, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ and ‘Existentialism is a Humanism’ are the other two. The ambiguity that Simone De Beauvoir discusses in this book is similar to the ambiguity that Sartre and Camus talk about; the ambiguity at the root of existentialism. In ‘The Myth of Sisyphus,’ Camus begins with the encounter with absurd, the encounter at the root of realization that the self cannot be reconciled with the universe. His argument on existentialism starts with a question on suicide and builds to explain the absurd, which once realized, he argues, should not be a source of anguish but bliss. In ‘Existentialism is a Humanism,” Sartre begins with the premise that ‘existence precedes essence’ and goes on to build an argument on why existentialism is the only doctrine that is humanistic. Within this argument, Sartre clarifies why existentialism is not individualistic but a philosophy that focuses on the greater good of the collective human race. In ‘The Ethics of Ambiguity,’ Beauvoir begins with the realization of ambiguity of existence around...

United States on Dec 26, 2018

Jacob: A very important read. Book showed up in great condition, no complaints.

Canada on Jan 29, 2018

kt: Un trabajo de filosofía que da más sustancia a su trabajo del segundo sexo, recomiendo que lo lean junto a su novel "La invitada" también. Es interesante compararla con Sartre, hay similitudes y diferencias importantes.

Spain on Jan 17, 2014

Rufus Burgess: "As soon as one considers a system abstractly and theoretically, one puts himself, in effect on the plane of the universal, thus , of the infinite. That is why reading the Hegelian system is so comforting. I remember having experienced a great feeling of calm on reading Hegel... But once I got into the street again, into my life, out of the system, beneath a real sky, the system was no longer of any us to me... I think that, inversely, existentialism does not offer to the reader the consolations of an abstract evasion: existentialism proposes no evasion." -- Simone de Beauvoir

"The Ethics of Ambiguity" is the most concise overview of Existentialist ethics I have read. In "Being and Nothingness" Sartre eschewed an ethical system in favor of focusing almost exclusively on ontological relationships. Here, Beauvoir takes "Being and Nothingness" and extends it into an ethical system.

There are two major parts to "Ethics of Ambiguity". The first part focuses on different degrees of personal freedom. Degrees of understanding range from: the sub-man, serious man, nihilist, adventurer, passionate man, and, finally, the independent man. The...

United States on Dec 24, 2012

not a natural: I first read this book forty years ago for an undergraduate class in social philosophy. I've re-read it five or six times since, and benefitted from each re-reading. Though it was not DeBeauvoir's intention to write an introduction to existentialism, this is the best one available.

What is the meaning of life? It has none save that which we give it, an inescapable process which the author terms "disclosure of being in the world." This view is strongly relativistic, to be sure, providing no basis for preferring a painfully abscessed molar to good sex.

Unlike the early Sartre, moreover, DeBeauvoir recognizes that we disclose being in the world -- learn what it means to be -- in very specific ways, in socially determined contexts. The meanings we discern are bounded by the social worlds of which we are the ongoing creations and which we help to create.

DeBeauvoir's answer to what-is-the-meaning-of-life kinds of questions is not spiritually uplifting, but it's an answer, given without equivocation or hollow appeals to faith. As such, I think it's the right answer. She makes a compelling case.

Can we organize our lives around...

United States on May 23, 2009