Beauvoir appropriated Hegel’s master-slave dialectic before Sartre did

Evidence

Nancy Bauer, in her book Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy and Feminism, rightly challenges the simplistic view that Beauvoir merely appropriates “Sartre’s” Hegel. She argues that “Beauvoir’s appropriation in Th e Second Sex of the so-called master-slave dialectic in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit … takes place in the light of her dissatisfactions with Sartre’s taking up of the dialectic in Being and Nothingness.” Bauer’s approach marks an important step forward in critically evaluating the philosophical relationship between Sartre and Beauvoir. However, the main problem with an approach that interprets Beauvoir’s philosophy as essentially reactive to Sartre’s is the fact that it fails to take into account that it was Beauvoir, rather than Sartre, who fi rst appropriated Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic in her novel She Came to Stay. In this respect, as we have already seen, it is Sartre’s handling of the dialectic in Being and Nothingness that is reactive to his implicit reading of Beauvoir’s novel. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 265

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages the central historiographical debate of this book itself — reverses the standard influence direction, matching how earlier chapters argued Beauvoir’s novel preceded Being and Nothingness. — connects to: Sartre’s Hegel exposure during Being and Nothingness came mediated through Beauvoir. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 246; Beauvoir’s concept of transcendence evolves from Sartre’s metaphysics toward an active Hegelian sense — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 591; Beauvoir repurposes the Hegelian dialectic to analyze women’s historic oppression — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 262

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir repurposes the Hegelian dialectic to analyze women’s historic oppression #expands (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 262
• Beauvoir’s concept of transcendence evolves from Sartre’s metaphysics toward an active Hegelian sense #expands (0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 591