Beauvoir located an irreducible ambiguity at the heart of the human condition

Evidence

Beauvoir (1948) argues that there is an inherent ambiguity in our human condition. This is a source of both hope and despair. As conscious, thinking beings, we can interpret and experience the world in ways that are not possible for other forms of life; yet we cannot free ourselves from that world; we remain of the world while reflecting on it. We assert our power to determine our own destinies, yet also find ourselves “crushed by the dark weight of other things” (p. 7). We perceive ourselves as unique, sovereign subjects in a world of objects; yet, as objects for others, we are merely individuals in a greater collectivity. We believe we know that we exist, yet “between the past which no longer is and the future which is not yet, this moment when … [we exist] is nothing” (p. 7). — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 877

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the specific sense of ‘ambiguity’ Beauvoir uses as the basis of her ethics.
• XREF: Relates to the chapter’s thesis that uncertainty is ontological, linking existentialist philosophy to critical pedagogy. — connects to: Attempts to eliminate ambiguity only underscore the disorder humans suffer — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 879; Sartre’s decline embodied Beauvoir’s vision of life as ambiguous contingency — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 976; Beauvoir’s threefold ambiguity defines the human as immanent-transcendent, free-yet-unmade, and conflicted-with-yet-requiring the Other. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 112 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s threefold ambiguity defines the human as immanent-transcendent, free-yet-unmade, and conflicted-with-yet-requiring the Other. #expands (0.92) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 112
• Beauvoir held that human ambiguity is constitutive, not a problem to solve #qualifies (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 718
• Sartre’s decline embodied Beauvoir’s vision of life as ambiguous contingency #exemplifies (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 976
• Beauvoir later disavowed her own ethics of ambiguity for Marxist reasons #contradicts (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 720
• Beauvoir’s ethics derive moral obligations from interdependent transcendence #expands (0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 578