Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-538143-6
Verlag: OUP US

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 379 g

Reihe: Studies in Feminist Philosophy

Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is the first full-length study of Beauvoir's political thinking. Best known as the author of The Second Sex, Beauvoir also wrote an array of other political and philosophical texts that are less well known. Together, these constitute an original contribution to political theory and philosophy. The book both locates Beauvoir in her own intellectual and political context and demonstrates her continuing significance.
For, in her unique voice, Beauvoir still speaks to a range of pressing theoretical and practical questions concerning politics. These include the political value and dangers of liberal humanism; how oppressed groups become complicit in their own oppression; how social identities are perpetuated; the
limits to rationalism and the place of emotions, such as the desire for revenge, in politics. In discussing Beauvoir's reflections on these and other matters the book puts her ideas into conversation with those of many contemporary thinkers, including feminist and race theorists, as well as with historical figures in the liberal, Hegelian, and Marxist traditions.

Beauvoir's political thinking emerges from her fundamental insights into the ambiguity of human existence. Combining phenomenological descriptions with structural analyses, she focuses on the tensions of human action as both free and constrained. To be human is to be an embodied self, to be capable of free choice and yet to be constrained and physically vulnerable. It is also to be in the world with many other such selves, whose relationships may be both reciprocal and conflictual or
oppressive. Such ambiguities are intrinsic to politics, and they are not subject to resolution. Beauvoir thus shows us that failure is a necessary part of political action, and she insists that we acknowledge this while also assuming responsibility for the outcomes of what we do.

Zielgruppe

In philosophy: scholars interested in Continental philosophy, feminist philosophy and social & political philosophy, and especially those who work at intersections of these sub-fields. In political science: a broad audience in contemporary political theory, especially those oriented toward critical theory, continental theory, and feminist theory; also those engaged in the topical issues Kruks discusses, such as posthumanism, political judgment and revenge & reconciliation after political atrocities.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kruks, Sonia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1: Humanism After Posthumanism
Chapter 2: Theorizing Oppression
Chapter 3: Confronting Privilege
Chapter 4: Dilemmas of Political Judgment
Chapter 5: "Eye for Eye": The Question of Revenge
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Kruks, Sonia
Sonia Kruks grew up in London and studied at Leeds University and the London School of Economics. She taught at universities in London and in Southern Africa before moving to the USA, where she has taught at the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research and at Oberlin College. She is the author of several books on existential political theory and feminist theory.