The Ethics of Ambiguity

Where did Beauvoir grow up? Relationship? What is she known for?

Paris. Lifelong unmarried non-monogamous partnership with Sartre. Public intellectual, novels, memoirs, essays, travel diaries, philosophy, active feminist, decolonial movies

Why is her relationship with philosophy complicated?

She was pigeonholed as a feminist figure which stopped her from entering the philosophical cannon (not considered worthy). She also rejected/distanced herself from philosophy

Beauvoir's flaws:

She and Sartre were accused of grooming their students and having sexual relationships with them. She also makes hasty and offensive stereotypes

Occupation of Paris in WWII:

Nazi occupation in Paris began in 1940, this is also when the first protest of the anti-fascist French resistance occurred. IN 1941, Sartre was imprisoned. In 1944 the French resistance uprising occurred and Paris was liberated. IN 1945, the first municipal election occurred where women had suffrage

How big was the French Resistance?

It was made of many small factions, the resistance was much smaller than most people assume

Key Ideas of Existentialism:

Existence precedes essence: human beings define themselves through their choices and actions; who we are is not defined or predetermined by god, nature or anyone else. We create who we are by engaging with the world

We are condemned to be free: there is nothing that defines who we are so we take on the responsibility of freedom, which is often not fun. This recognition can cause us anxiety and nausea

What is free will?

Capacity to control our actions, to be the source of the action and have ability to choose otherwise or abstain

What is deontology?

Kant's idea that actions are good if they express duty to will a universal maxim ; treat rational humanity as end in itself. Means and ends are subordinate to the principle they necessary emerge from

What is consequentialism/utilitarianism?

An action is good if it begets the best consequences (greatest happiness for the greatest number, maximal utility). The ends justify the means

What is virtue ethics?

Aristotle's idea that actions are good if it is an expression of one's virtuous character (and/or aligns with their ruling principle). Action flows from the virtue, so overall, virtuous intentions and actions matter more than effects/aims

What is existential ethics?

Beauvoir's idea that actions are good if they advance fundamental freedom and acknowledge the real living embodied limitations of circumstances. Means and ends both matter

What is the existential view of the trolley problem?

Thought experiments are antithetical to ethical decision making, as they assume we live in an ahistorical vacuum. Ethics is not a math problem. These ethical systems are themselves unethical due to their failure to face reality as it really is

What is bad faith?

A kind of faux self-deception or disingenuousness, failure to take responsibility for views or actions, failure to recognize situational limitations, failure to treat/view other people with respect as rational human beings

What is good faith?

Living and choosing in a way that invokes fairness, sincerity, authenticity, honesty about one's own biases or limitations. Characterized by respect for another person's dignity and freedom

What happens in childhood?

Children explore freedom to imagine and from ethical responsibility/accountability. This is freedom without exuberance but without anxiety

What is freedom/transcendence?

The foundation of human subjectivity. It is the ability to make choices and act as an ethical agent and take responsibility for these choices. The ability to create yourself in the way you want to

What is facticity/immancence?

Elements of self and life that one doesn't choose. The serious world that appears, and meaningfully is in certain ways, unchangeable

What is Ethical Goodness for Beauvoir?

Taking responsibility for and actualizing freedom for oneself and others and recognizing the reality of one's facticity, or the constrains on one's freedom in the world

What is willing one's own facticity

This is when one knows that they are fundamentally free but they choose unfreedom as the motivation for actions. This is a kind of bad faith that is a result of leaning passively into external unchosen circumstances. It involves clinging to one's facticity to avoid the agony of freedom/to exploit others

When is one morally culpable vs not morally culpable when it comes to facticity?

Someone being trapped in ignorance in their facticity (a delusion about the limits of their freedom) in which they don't know any better is not morally culpable for their actions. Someone who knows that they are free but chooses to be unfree/yields their freedom/humanity for the ease of living as facticity is morally culpable

What happens in adolescence?

The child recognizes that they are free because they see freedom in others. At a certain point they figure out how they want to be and how they don't want to be (Recognizing ones' partents' complacency/hipocracy)

How can we attain self-consciousness/subjectivity?

Through mutual recognition of other's subjectivity

What is negative freedom?

Freedom from authority or limitations, universal/fundamental capacity to will freedom. The act of saying "NO"

What is positive freedom?

Willing one's freedom and disclosing being. Freedom of self-determination, to become oneself through specific choices and actions. This is intersubjective

Relate positive and negative freedom:

You can't have positive freedom without negative freedom. We exercise both but only positive freedom is ethical freedom

What is ambiguity?

Being open to more than one interpretation/having multiple meanings or options. It is uncertain/inexact

What does Beauvoir tell us about ambiguity?

In ethical decision making, we are confronted by ambiguity and uncertainty, but we have a responsibility to act in spite of it

What is antimony? Example:

A real or apparent contradiction between two conclusions, both of which seem justified. Using humans/ignoring the transcendence of some as a means to pursue the ends of all human beings

How can the present and future be viewed as continuous?

Is and will be. the present contains future within it. It is at least quasi linear

How can the present and future be viewed as separate?

Is vs. will be. The future breaks from the present and time is episodic. The present is transitory and the future is permanent

What is pure negativity?

Pure freedom of negation, destruction, absorption, taking it

What is creative negativity?

Constructive freedom of negation, the creative metabolization of reality. The act of taking things in (the predetermined conditions of the universe) and making something out of it (transcending)

What does Beauvoir mean by demoralized totalities?

All categories that function as definitive universal ends (humanity, history, the universe) are ongoing, evolving process that we participate in creating

What is the purpose of festivals?

They have the role of stopping the movement of transcendence, they stop the movement of time. They mark the ending/beinging of a timeline. They are an act of pure negativity (total consumption)so they can not always exist

Difficult with action? Why must we still act?

Action involves inherent failure (We will fail to act on our freedom/acknowledge our facticity). Action is stilled needed to become a subject, we are condemned to pursue ethical freedom

What is the deontological critique of existentialism?

There is neither a moral law nor a homogenous humanity for Beauvoir. The only unifying element amongst all human beings is freedom, which doesn't have an determinate content

Subjectivism:

The idea that actions can't be judged as right or wrong by any standard outside of oneself. Right and wrong depend on individual perspective

Subjectivist critique of existentialism:

Beauvoir claims that there is a sort of standard for good actions: they involve the advancement of individual and collective freedom, the ability to self-create and justify one's' actions and develop an understanding of one's circumstances. But not of these are stable definition

What happens when we will positive freedom?

We disclose the future in the present. The future is not static/beyond, we make it in the here and now