Abstract

This paper will argue that the philosophical significance of The Second Sex lies in its development ofthe existential ethics that de Beauvoir explored in her previous philosophical writings, Pyrrhus andCinéas and The Ethics of Ambiguity. De Beauvoir’s ethics is based on two notions of freedom; that is,freedom, as it is understood by both herself and Sartre, as constituent of humanity ,and the concept of moral freedom that de Beauvoir introduces to existentialism and that is inherentlylinked with the concept of situation . While the creation of an individual meaning to one’slife is, for de Beauvoir, of prime importance in living an authentic existence, her innovation is to insistthat the individual quest for freedom is not in conflict with others but rather is enabled by the self/otherrelationship. It will be argued therefore, that de Beauvoir’s ethics is both individual and relational; it isconcerned with the particularity of an individual meaning that is inherently linked with the facticity ofthe other. Freedom becomes both the defining characteristic of human existence and also its ethicalideal. This ethical ideal is achieved through a genuine reciprocal recognition that is accepting both ofthe ambiguity of humanity and of the risk involved in fully assuming one’s freedom.