Beauvoir’s transcendence and immanence derive from gendered biology, not Sartrean metaphysics

Evidence

Surpassing the repetition of biological life, man has historically represented transcendence, given his participation in the activities that set up the world over and against nature: he remodels the earth, creates new values, takes risks, fi ghts, progresses, conquers— in short, he accomplishes what transcends the maintenance of life itself. Woman, on the other hand, has originally represented immanence, the repetition of life, given her bondage to the natural functions of childbirth and childrearing (SS, 65–69). Notably, the reinterpretation of transcendence and immanence given above provides a partial defense of Beauvoir against contemporary feminist critics who maintain that Th e Second Sex incorporates a masculinist philosophical framework. Genevieve Lloyd and Charlene Haddock Siegfried, for instance, have assumed that Beauvoir’s concepts of transcendence and immanence are imports of Sartrean metaphysics; these critics and others argue that the masculine elements of Sartrean existentialism render it inadequate for analyzing the female condition. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 600

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages the Lloy/Siegfried critique that The Second Sex imports Sartrean categories; central to the Beauvoir-Sartre authorship debate this reader is researching. — connects to: Beauvoir argued womanhood is socially constructed, not innate — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 669; Beauvoir’s The Second Sex applied existentialist method to the history of patriarchy — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 666; Beauvoir grounded existential freedom within gendered historical situations — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 684 (+6 more)
• DEFINE: Grounds transcendence/immanence in reproductive biology rather than abstract Sartrean freedom/facticity — a redefinition at the heart of feminist readings of Beauvoir.

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s concept of transcendence evolves from Sartre’s metaphysics toward an active Hegelian sense #contradicts (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 591
• Beauvoir innovated by pairing Hegel’s immanence with transcendence only in The Second Sex #qualifies (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 594