Beauvoir holds that ethical freedom is realized through constructive worldly action

Evidence

To assume an ethical freedom in willing oneself free is not an empty formula: ethical freedom is realized in engagement with the public world and in constructive activities, rather than in passivity, laziness, or idle enjoyment (EA, 78-81). Human beings do not truly exist apart from doing something, and it is therefore human action, in which we create and change the world, open up new possibilities to one another, or at least justify and reinvent the status quo, that fi rst defi nes the freedom of an existentialist ethics. Th e creation of science, art, architecture, philosophy, and so forth exist in this light, not simply for their own sakes, nor for the achievement of progress or enlightenment, but also for the sake of realizing human freedom: Th e constructive activities of man take on a valid meaning only when they are assumed as a movement toward freedom; and, reciprocally, one sees that such a movement is concrete: discoveries, inventions, industries, culture, paintings, and books people the world concretely and open concrete possibilities to men. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 615

Categorization

• XREF: Beauvoir’s conception of willing oneself free and transcendence connects to her later Ethics of Ambiguity and to the Beauvoir-Sartre authorship debate over The Ethics of Ambiguity’s provenance. — connects to: Friendship and generosity constitute the highest ethical human achievement for Beauvoir. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 274; Beauvoir founded her ethics on willing effective freedom for all others — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 479; Beauvoir holds that individual freedom is realized only through being directed at other existences — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 659

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir holds that individual freedom is realized only through being directed at other existences #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 659