THE EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR: 43 (Contributions to Phenomenology) - Tapa blanda

This volume stems chiefly from a research symposiumofthe same title held in Delray Beach, Florida during May 1997 with the sponsorship of Florida Atlantic University and the Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, Inc.The papers from that occasionhave been revised inthe lightofcriticismbysympatheticcolleagues. Onepaperthat waspresentedhas notbeen includedandtwohavebeen added,thatoftheFullbrooks, whichwas prepared for the symposium but could not be presented, and that by Ms. Sarah Miller because life in South Floridaprevents one from forgetting old age,whichSimone deBeauvoirwasthefirstinphenomenologytodescribeat length.ProfessorToadvine'sbibliography wasavailablefromtheoutsetofthe project and was then used and praised by all. The colleagues included here and also Professor Dorothy Leland are thanked for their sympathetic participation in the symposium. Mr. Samuel Julian is thanked for the technical editing ofthis volume. Wendy O'Brien Lester Embree VB Introduction Wendy O'Brien Humber College Early studiesofthephilosophyofSimonedeBeauvoirreadherworks through the lensofeitherFeminismorExistentialism.Whilebothofthesereadingsof her writings have afforded important insights into her thought, they have at the same time overlooked the basic approachofher philosophy, resulting in claims of inconsistencies and of a lack of rigor. Feminist theorists, for example, found an importantpoliticalagendainBeauvoir'swork. However, with their focus on this elementofher writing, they tended to overlook the philosophicalunderpinningsofherreflectionsonthe livesofwomen. Read as such,Beauvoirhasbeencriticizedbyher contemporariesforthe incoherence in her work and for her failure to presentpositive role models for women in her novels, essays, and studies.

While earlier research considered Simone de Beauvoir in the perspectives of Existentialism or Feminism, this work is the first to emphasize her reflective and descriptive approach and the full range of issues she addresses. There are valuable chapters and sections that are historical and/or comparative, but most of the contents of this work critically examine Beauvoir's views on old age (whereon she is the first phenomenologist to work), biology, gender, ethics, ethnicity (where she is among the first), and politics (again among the first). Besides their systematic as well as historical significance, these chapters show her philosophy as on a par with those of Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre in quality, richness and distinctiveness of problematics, and the penetration of her insight into collective as well as individual human life within the socio-historical world.