Today I mark the occasion Simone de Beauvoirs birth. She was many things, an athiest, feminist, existentialist, philosopher, intellectual and political activist, born to Francois and George Bertrand de Beauvoir, her father encouraged her to be an avid reader from a young age. At 14, she had a crisis of faith and decided definitely that there was no God. On all accounts she was a precoucious, but intellectually gifted curious child, who would later come into conflict with her parents over their difference of beliefs.
Educated at a convent school, she went on to study philosopy at the Sorbonne, seeking a life as a writer and teacher. In 1929. she took the aggregation exam in philosophy at the Ecole Normale de Sueriuiere, even though she was not a student there, and was placed second before Jean- Paul Sartre becoming the youngest philosopher teacher in France at the age of 21.She would begin a lifetime relationship with Jean Paul Sartre, though refusing to marry or set up house with him, instead oth took and even shared lovers over time, becoming famous Parisian intellectuals and part of the city's cafe culture. regularly meeting other great minds of the time.Together, she and Sartre would develop existentialism, a philosophy that takes freedom to be the highest value in a universe where God is dead and where human beings create their own values through their choices and actions, In the post war period, existentialism was the most challenging expression of radical, secular, philosophical humanism.
She would teach philosophy and literature throughout the 1930's, but was dismissed during Word War 11 from her post by the Vichy government after the German army occupied Paris in 1940. Both she and Sartre would work for the French Resistance during the remainder of the war, but unable to teach, she soon launched her literary career.
She went on to write many groundbreaking books that can be found today on many bookshelves across the world. She wrote her best known book The Second Sex, on the treatment of women throughout history, in 18 months at the age of 38 in 1949.It helped raise feminist consciousness but also stressed that women's liberation was liberation for men too, it was subsequently placed by the Vatican on their list of prohibited books. if that does not wet your appetite , am not sure what will.
Her first philosophical essay called "Pyrrus and Cineas" 1944, asked such quetions as :" What are the criteria of ethical action? How can I distinguish ethical from unethical political projects? What are the principles of ethical relationships? Can violence ever be justified?"
She would go onto write four volumes of autobiography. After the Second World War she travelled to the U.S, where she would meet and have an affair with the writer Nelson Algren, who is best known for his book ' The Man with the Golden Arm"
The novel ' The Mandarins' . 1954, is based on her relationships with Algren and Sartre, and is a chronicle of the movement of post World War intellectualls from their 'mandarin' ( educated elite) status towards political engagement.
It was in the 1970's that she would become an active member of the women's liberation movement in France. Her name was one of the 243 listed in a 1971 manifesto in a bid to legalise abortion in France, that featured famous women who claimed to have had a termination, before it came legal in 1974.An intellectual vigilante she used her pen as a weapon, breaking down gender stereotypes and challenged laws that prohibited women fom having control over their own bodies.Today more than ever it is vital to recognise that freedom can't be assumed. Some of the freedoms that de Beauvoir fought so hard for, have since come under threat.
In 1986 her health, having sadly declined due to her heavy use of amphetimines and alcohol,, she died aged 78, and was buried next to Sartre in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, next to Sartre. A life of many contradictions, but nevertheless a fascinating and inspiring woman whose life and work still has huge influence on many over the years. Her work stll provides us with a fascinating unique point of view, on what it it is to be human and how that still pertains to the struggle for political and spiritual unity. Ideas that still resonate with us today.Happy birthday Simone.
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