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Simone de Beauvoir's Phenomenology of Sexual Difference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Sara Heinämaa
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Abstract

The paper argues that the philosophical starting point of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex is the phenomenological understanding of the living body, developed by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It shows that Beauvoir's notion of philosophy stems from the phenomenological interpretation of Cartesianism which emphasizes the role of evidence, self-criticism, and dialogue.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 14 , Issue 4: Special Issue: The Philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir , Fall 1999 , pp. 114 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by Hypatia, Inc.

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