The Ethics Of Ambiguity By Beauvoir

“To attain his truth, man must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity of his being but, on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it,” (13). Throughout The Ethics of Ambiguity Simone de Beauvoir sets out to explain her idea of what freedom and ambiguity is, the ethics behind those ideas, and what makes us realize our own freedom. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “Man is condemned to be free.” Beauvoir takes this statement and expands on it to explain her ideas of freedom and how one attains or attempts to dismiss it. The philosopher Dostoievsky stated, “If God does not exist everything is permitted,” (15) however Beauvoir disagrees. If God does not exist man has a greater responsibility to do what is deemed right and moral “He bears the responsibility

How then, Beauvoir asks, “Could men, originally separated, get together?” (18) This is when Beauvoir starts to discuss ethics and the main topic of her book. As, according to existentialism, there is no god or higher power, man has a moral obligation to others, and those morals are essentially a result of our freedom. “To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision,” (24). It is through this moral obligation that men come together. Beauvoir gives the example of restricting a child’s freedom, and how a child has such a vast future that it must be protected. Parents have a moral obligation to look out for their children, to ensure that they have a future open to them, and in a sense protect them from the world until they are ready to accept their freedom. It cannot be expected of a child to understand the concept of freedom and make decisions that will potentially cast them in to the future and open up more possibilities. Does this mean that we can only intervene in a person’s life through the child-parent relationship, or are there other scenarios where such an intervention is permitted? Certainly Beauvoir must agree with an intervention involving the unfortunate case of one being in a coma, incapable of making decisions regarding their health and their future. Such an example is drastic but still worth

We validate our existence based off of others; “Man can find a justification of his own existence only in the existence of other men,” (72). We are constantly viewing, judging and comparing ourselves to others to feel some sort of validity that what we are doing is the right thing and that there is a purpose to our existence. Man needs some sort of justification, to ease an internal anxiety and answer the question, “what’s the use?” It’s as if man is free to make his own choices, and he needs to do so in order to be free, but wants confirmation that what he’s doing is important. There is comfort in knowing that others have made similar decisions and that those decisions had positive outcomes that shaped a desirable