Episode 140: De Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2016
⏱️ 129 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. For Wes Alwan's summary of this book, go here. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing our predicament as "absurd," de Beauvoir prefers "ambiguous": We are a biological organism in the world, yet we're also free consciousness transcending the given situation. Truly coming to terms with this freedom means not only understanding that you transcend any label, but also recognizing that your freedom requires the freedom of others. The full foursome discuss whether this attempt to ground an existentialist ethics works.
End song: "Reasonably Lonely," by Mark Lint.
Transcript
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| 0:23.0 | Now please enjoy the show. |
| 0:30.0 | Your listening is the partially examined life, |
| 0:34.6 | a philosophy podcast by some guys who read one point, |
| 0:37.3 | said on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it. |
| 0:40.1 | Our question for episode 140 is something like, |
| 0:42.9 | how can existentialists and support ethics? |
| 0:45.3 | Or maybe what is the human condition? |
| 0:47.1 | We read Simone Dubovar's at the Ethics of Ambiguity in 1948, |
| 0:51.5 | arts 1 and 2, |
| 0:52.9 | you can join the discussion, get the text, and last more information at partiallyexaminalife.com. |
| 0:57.1 | This is Mark Linson-Meier, |
| 0:58.8 | a thing crushed by other things in medicine Wisconsin. |
| 1:01.7 | This is Seth Paskin, |
| 1:03.2 | adventuring in Austin, Texas. |
... |
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