For existentialist ethics, transcendence collapse into immanence is the absolute evil
Evidence
Our perspective is that of existentialist ethics. Every subject plays his part as such specifi cally through exploits or projects that serve as a mode of transcendence; he achieves liberty only through a continual reaching out toward other liberties. Th ere is no justifi cation for present existence other than its expansion into an indefi nitely open future. Every time transcendence falls back into immanence, stagnation, there is a degradation of existence into the ‘en-soi’—the brutish life of subjection to given conditions— and of liberty into constraint and contingence. Th is downfall represents a moral fault if the subject consents to it; if it is infl icted upon him, it spells frustration and oppression. In both cases it is an absolute evil. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 427
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines the core Beauvoirian ethical framework: liberty as reaching toward other liberties, and the fall into immanence/en-soi as absolute evil.
- XREF: Directly relevant to my reading of existentialist ethics; connects to Beauvoir’s Pyrrhus and Ethics of Ambiguity formulation, and to the being/having-to-be distinction exploited later in this chapter. — connects to: The lapse of transcendence into immanence is an absolute evil, whether chosen or inflicted — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64; Narcissism, romantic love, and mysticism are doomed attempts to transcend through immanence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1770; Modern worldview collapsed the transcendent beyond back into subjective life — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 833
Broader Connections
- Narcissism, romantic love, and mysticism are doomed attempts to transcend through immanence
#epitomizes(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1770 - Modern worldview collapsed the transcendent beyond back into subjective life
#qualifies(0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 833