Friendship and generosity constitute the highest ethical human achievement for Beauvoir.

Evidence

It is possible to rise above this confl ict if each individual freely recognizes the other, each regarding himself and the other simultaneously as object and as subject in a reciprocal manner. But friendship and generosity, which alone permit in actuality this recognition of free beings, are not facile virtues; they are assuredly man’s highest achievement, and through that achievement he is to be found in his true nature. But this true nature is that of a struggle unceasingly begun, unceasingly abolished; it requires man to outdo himself at every moment. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 274

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is Beauvoir’s own definition of reciprocity grounded in friendship and generosity as distinct from Hegel’s or Sartre’s models of intersubjectivity.
• XREF: connects to: 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 ethical freedom is realized through constructive worldly action — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 615; Beauvoir’s ethics derive moral obligations from interdependent transcendence — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 578 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s ethics derive moral obligations from interdependent transcendence #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 578
• Beauvoir founded her ethics on willing effective freedom for all others #expands (0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 479
• Beauvoir’s early ethics treats freedom as necessarily directed toward others #expands (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 76
• Beauvoir holds that ethical freedom is realized through constructive worldly action #expands (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 615