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Simone de Beauvoir's Ethics of Freedom and Absolute Evil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Anne Morgan
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Abstract

Simone de Beauvoir held that human experience is intrinsically ambiguous and that there are no values extrinsic to experience, but she also designated some actions as absolute evil. This essay explains how Beauvoir utilized an intrinsic absolute value to ground an action-guiding principle of freedom that justifies her notion of evil. Morgan's analysis counters Robin May Schott's objections that Beauvoir failed to systematically justify her notion of absolute evil and that Beauvoir shifted from a “logic of action” to a “logic of history” when she utilized the concept.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 75 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by Hypatia, Inc.

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