Beauvoir treated alterity as philosophically central while Sartre handled it classically.

Evidence

Feminist scholars of Beauvoir’s works have had to wage a diffi cult campaign in order to have her philosophical work’s originality and importance recognized. As far as I am concerned, the battle has been won; I am quite content to leave all those who persist in believing otherwise to their own devices. It is within this framework— one of equal respect for Beauvoir’s philosophical originality— that I want to reevaluate the philosophical relationship between Sartre and Beauvoir. In particular, I will examine what I will argue is Beauvoir’s important infl uence on Sartre as he was writing the Critique of Dialectical Reason, and I will examine the role Beauvoir played in Sartre’s construction of his theory of alterity. Th e problem of alterity provides us, I argue, with a useful way to examine the accuracy of my hypothesis— and I propose to examine not only the way relationships of alterity are conceived but also the respective importance each philosopher attributes to the problem of alterity. Sartre deals with the question of alterity in his early works such as Being and Nothingness in a wholly classical way, even if he is already taking the fi rst steps for a radical revision of the philosophy of the subject. Beauvoir, on the other hand, challenges classical ideas of alterity, treating the revised conception of the Other as central to her philosophy. As such, Beauvoir, unlike Sartre, is not forced to devote a special chapter to it, as is oft en done in well-known treatments of the “philosophy of subject.” In her very fi rst philosophical essays, Beauvoir undertakes what I am tempted to label a “banalization” of the category of alterity to which most of our contemporaries should rally: this would save us all our discussions of identity and alterity that only reproduce the most unnecessary and abstract schemes. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 403

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘banalization’ of alterity as Beauvoir’s early innovation — concepts needing precise fixation for Continental scholarship.
• XREF: connects to: Beauvoir holds Others as essential, challenging Sartre’s ontological individualism — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 184; Beauvoir’s situated account of freedom moved Sartre beyond his earlier absolutism — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 46

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir holds Others as essential, challenging Sartre’s ontological individualism #expands (0.90) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 184
• Beauvoir’s situated account of freedom moved Sartre beyond his earlier absolutism #complicates (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 46