Beauvoir’s pre-Sartre diaries already contained core existentialist concepts

Evidence

Aft er Beauvoir met Sartre, she did not pursue writing. She said she was too busy being happy and in love to want to write. It was Sartre who gave her the little push she needed to focus on her writing again. However, that does not mean that he was always behind her writing and philosophical activity. In fact, the diaries of Beauvoir, which predate her meeting with Sartre, show that she had always loved philosophy and wanted to dedicate herself to it. Th ese diaries still did not represent a sophisticated philosophical theory, but they contain many seeds of certain concepts that will later lie at the heart of her philosophy— and possibly Sartre’s— such as the concept of the Other, situation, freedom, and bad faith. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 34

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the standard narrative that Sartre originated Other, situation, freedom, and bad faith; key evidence for the influence-direction debate at the heart of this reading. — connects to: Beauvoir’s situated account of freedom moved Sartre beyond his earlier absolutism — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 46; Beauvoir’s embodiment views diverged from Sartre’s from the start — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 119
• QUESTION: If the diaries predate Sartre and already hold these seed concepts, how seriously does this revise the authorship story? This is the crux of the book.

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s situated account of freedom moved Sartre beyond his earlier absolutism #corroborates (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 46
• Beauvoir’s embodiment views diverged from Sartre’s from the start #corroborates (0.78) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 119