Beauvoir deliberately sought interlocutors who could challenge her thinking
Evidence
Of all the things Beauvoir wondered at, one thing amazed her more than any other: the immensity of her own ignorance. She loved to conclude, after early debates with Sartre, ‘I’m no longer sure what I think, nor whether I can be said to think at all.’ She apparently sought out men who were brilliant enough to make her feel at a loss in this way — and there were few to be found. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 362
Categorization
- SEED: Angle: intellectual life as seeking to be destabilized rather than affirmed — how philosophical doubt becomes a courtship pattern of the mind.
- XREF: connects to: Beauvoir deliberately concealed cases where she led Sartre intellectually — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 42; Recent Beauvoir scholarship works by reversing influence direction and defending her concepts — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 163; Beauvoir’s self-deprecating claims helped suppress her philosophical influence — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 36
Broader Connections
- Beauvoir deliberately concealed cases where she led Sartre intellectually
#complicates(0.78) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 42 - Beauvoir’s self-deprecating claims helped suppress her philosophical influence
#complicates(0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 36 - Recent Beauvoir scholarship works by reversing influence direction and defending her concepts
#corroborates(0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 163