Episode 51, Simone de Beauvoir (Part III - The Second Sex)

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Jack Symes | Andrew Horton, Oliver Marley, and Rose de Castellane

Education, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Courses

4.8 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

Simone de Beauvoir was a pioneer for the second-wave feminist movement and one of the most famous philosophers to have lived. Strikingly, Beauvoir did not label herself as a philosopher, since she never attempted to provide an original treatise which aimed to fully encapsulate the truth of the world or the human condition. Instead, she considered herself as a writer, commentator and novelist. Beauvoir's identification should not, however, discredit her as a philosopher. Jean-Paul Sartre's work on existentialism is heavily indebted to Beauvoir's careful eye and scholarly expertise, and her book The Ethics of Ambiguity, is considered by many as one of the most significant texts in moral philosophy and existentialism; the ethical text which Sartre promised, but never produced.

Simone de Beauvoir's most famous text is The Second Sex; a detailed examination on what it means to be a woman through the lens of existentialism. The Second Sex was highly controversial at the time of its publication; receiving backlash from certain areas of male-dominated academia and the press. Nevertheless, it is still considered to be one of the greatest works in feminist philosophy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pan, pan, psychist.
0:04.2	Part three, the second sex. Let's talk about sex, baby. Let's talk about you and me. What kind of sex are we talking about? Well, not the type of sex I think you're talking about. So I swear that's not the first time you've done that. When we did sexual ethics, that must have happened. You can have to start that as well. I think you did that. You can have to start paying them copyright, Jack. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not doing well. So, so we're now, anyway, so now we're going to start our section on the second sex. Um, the second sex, for those of you who are unaware, there's a book written by Simone de Beauvoir. It's quite a large book. It has two different
0:54.8	sections that were published separately and then compiled. So the first section is called
0:59.4	facts and myths, and the second section is called Women's Life Today. Now, in preparation for
1:04.3	this episode, I've actually read the whole thing. And I would recommend that you, if you can get
1:08.3	a hold of a good copy of the book, that you read the whole thing, because it has so much to it. There's so many nuances and interesting ideas inside the book. However, if you're a bit short on time and you don't have time to read a thousand page, tomb, like the second sex, I'd strongly recommend the second section, so the second book, Women's Life Today. I think this is the one
1:28.3	that most modern readers would probably enjoy the most. I think this is the one that really kind of
1:31.8	connects with modern readers. It has all the big, lovely dramatic quotes in it. It's got some really,
1:37.5	really interesting case studies and is truly kind of, as a volume of itself, from start to finish, it's just fascinating, really, really
1:45.9	interesting kind of book to go through. So should we start with a little bit of context then
1:49.7	for the second sex of what I've written?
1:51.1	Yeah, before we jump in, I think everyone listening is going to have views on feminism already.
1:55.4	It's not something you just don't have a view on. Everyone encounters members of the other
2:00.7	sex, whichever sex you're a part of.
2:02.8	It's that part of philosophy which you can't escape. So what we're going to do and what we're
2:08.5	going to ask is that you try your best to leave your own views or philosophy at the door here.
2:16.3	Come and sit down in the existentialist cafe with us.
2:19.3	Talk about it, think about it, and then leave the cafe and go out into the world with your new views.
2:25.3	Do you see what I mean? I don't want...
2:27.3	Yeah, sure. I mean, I trust that a lot of the people, hopefully everybody listening to this is open-minded to discussions about different points of view and that
2:35.5	Greg might be listening.
2:37.3	True.
	...

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