Philosophical Writings

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by Simone deBeauvoir,

Edited by Margaret A. Simons and Sylvie LeBonde Beauvoir

University of Illinois Press

Due/Published February 2005, 344 pages, cloth

ISBN 0252029828

This volume aims at nothing less than the transformation of Simone de Beauvoir's place in the philosophical canon. Despite growing interest her philosophy, Beauvoir remains widely misunderstood and is typically portrayed as a mere philosophical follower of her companion, Jean-Paul Sartre. In Philosophical Writings, Beauvoir herself shows that nothing could be further from the truth.

One factor contributing to misunderstanding has been the lack of English translations of much of Simone de Beauvoir's philosophical work, or worse--its mistranslation in heavily condensed, popular editions. Philosophical Writings addresses this source of misunderstanding by providing complete, scholarly editions of Beauvoir's philosophical texts covering the first twenty-three years of her work, including some only recently discovered. Ranging from metaphysical literature to essays on existentialist ethics, Philosophical Writings brings together diverse elements of Beauvoir's work while highlighting continuities in the development of her thought. Each of the translations features detailed notes and a scholarly introduction explaining its larger significance.

Contents

Foreword to the Beauvoir Series -- Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir
Acknowledgments

Introduction 1
Analysis of Claude Bernard's Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [1924]
Introduction by Margaret A. Simons and Hélène N. Peters

Two Unpublished Chapters from She Came to Stay [1938]
Introduction by Edward Fullbrook

Pyrrhus and Cineas (1944)
Introduction by Debra Bergoffe

A Review of The Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945)
Introduction by Sara Heinamaa

Moral Idealism and Political Realism (1945)
Introduction by Sonia Kruks

Existentialism and Popular Wisdom (1945)
Introduction by Eleanore Holveck

Jean-Paul Sartre [1945]
Introduction by Karen Vintges

An Eye for an Eye (1946)
Introduction by Kristana Arp

Literature and Metaphysics (1946)
Introduction by Margaret A. Simons

Introduction to an Ethics of Ambiguity (1946)
Introduction by Gail Weiss

An Existentialist Looks at Americans (1947)
Introduction by Shannon M. Mussett

What Is Existentialism? (1947)
Introduction by Nancy Bauer

Contributors
Index