Synopsis, 4/8

On Friday April 8, 2011 the 9:30 a.m. Introduction to Philosophy class began talking about the contemporary, female philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986). Not wanting to be associated with philosophy, Beauvoir formed her ideas through literature such as in the novel, She Came to Stay. In Beauvoir’s writings she appeared concerned with the concept of “self as object of consciousness.”

It seems impossible to look at Beauvoir without referencing Satre (and visa versa) due to their interesting, symbiotic relationship. Definitely more than just friends, they shared ideas and many of their works play off of each other. With that said, it appears that Satre needed Beauvoir’s intelligent inspiration more than she needed him, though society often finds this hard to believe because Beauvoir is a female. An example of this is the two pieces of writing they both published in 1943: She Came to Stay by Beauvoir and Being of Nothingness by Satre. Though each of their writings tackles similar ideas, Beauvoir wrote hers five years before Satre. Our class had a large discussion on the stealing of ideas versus working with others to develop thoughts. In the end Professor Layne stated the belief that Beauvoir had a better grasp on what she was discussing as shown by her ability to present her thoughts clearer and better than Satre.

The class approached learning about Beauvoir’s philosophy by discussing her concepts of Human Personality. Beauvoir believed that there were various selves, that no self is identical, and that a person is always split making self identity an allusive goal. This concept is a break from Coretsian Ego in which the split appears between the mind and body. Beauvoir’s split is recognized between freedom/subject, and facticity/object. Freedom is the desires and values body as subject. In discussing Freedom, Jack Kerouac and his stream of consciousness way of writing was deemed as freedom writing. Facticity is the social circumstances that can’t be changed and creates the body as object. The statement “I am thinking about myself” exemplifies this split because even within the construction of the sentence the “I” is the subject and the “myself” is the object. A person thinking about their self references back to the term “meta thinking” which has been brought up many times throughout the course and implies an endless turning of thoughts inward, about the self. Freedom, an act being for itself, and Facticity, an act in itself, is the main split and occurs within both the mind and the body.

In examining an individual’s personality, Beauvoir was lead to examine the way people react with other: Intersubjectivity. It’s understandable that a person can believe in their own existence because they are conscious of themselves. However, the problem with intersubjectivity is what universal experience leads us to believe others to be conscious beings like ourselves? Why does a person believe in a self, who is not their self? This idea builds off of Descartes “I think, therefore I exist.”

Another idea of Beauvoir’s was that of the Phenomenological Event, or experiencing self as object. As brought up in the idea of Human Personality, there are various selves. These different versions do not have to be equal and Beauvoir argues that they are indeed asymmetrical. Professor Layne brought up her roles/selves as teacher, wife, mother, etc. She is all of these positions, but they are all part of her, part of the whole. In the development of a persons self identity, they become an object of their own self realization. In the multiple parts that create a persons self, there’s always an ability to imagine something other, something to strive for. In all these facets, Beauvoir argues that people are not self identical, there is always another allusive goal.