Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity (Studies in Feminist Philosophy) - Softcover

Kruks, Sonia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195381432 ISBN 13: 9780195381436

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

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 together, constitute an original contribution to political theory and philosophy. Sonia Kruks here locates Beauvoir in her own intellectual and political context and demonstrates her continuing significance. Beauvoir still speaks, in a unique voice, to many pressing questions concerning politics: the values 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 such matters Kruks puts Beauvoir's 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 a paradoxical being, at once capable of free choice and yet, because embodied, vulnerable to injury from others. Politics is thus a domain of complexly interwoven, multiple, human interactions that is rife with ambiguity, and where freedom and violence too often closely intertwine. Beauvoir accordingly argues that failure is a necessary part of political action. However, she also insists that, while acknowledging this, we should assume responsibility for the outcomes of what we do.

About this title

About the Author

Sonia Kruks is the Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics at Oberlin College, She is the author of several books on existential political thought and feminist theory, most recently Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics.

Review

"Kruks' book not only addresses many of Beauvoir's texts, philosophical as well as literary, but is also rich in outside sources and densely footnoted with comments on related subjects, helpful concepts, and resources for further inquiries and interpretations... it will be of service both to researchers and to graduate and undergraduate students in a number of fields..." --European Journal of Philosophy

"Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is a "must read" for Beauvoir scholars but it also should not be overlooked by political theorist and feminist philosophers..." --APA Newsletter, Feminism and Philosophy Newsletter

"Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity is valuable not only for its contribution of a missing link in contemporary Beauvoir scholarship, but also for the broader challenge it presents to political projects and philosophical considerations that fail to take seriously the contingency and ambiguity of situations and political action."
--Hypatia Reviews Online

"... Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity provides readers with an erudite yet accessible reading of the political theory of one of the great intellects of the twentieth century. ... It is well worth careful study and raises questions that will haunt the reader long after it is concluded." --Review of Politics

"... Sonia Kruks provides a highly readable, rich and concise account Beauvoir's ideas but also deftly navigates contemporary debates in political thinking. This book is a must read." --Canadian Journal of Political Science

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0195381432
• ISBN 13: 9780195381436
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224