PPE Seminar | Daniela Dover (UCLA) and Jonathan Gingerich (Rutgers): "Freedom and Futurity: Simone de Beauvoir's Moral Philosophy”

Freedom and Futurity: Simone de Beauvoir's Moral Philosophy

Most people nowadays, especially in the Anglophone world, first encounter Simone de Beauvoir through her 1949 magnum opus the Second Sex. But in a conversation with a biographer near the end of her life, Beauvoir mentioned only two books as particularly important for understanding her oeuvre: her two book-length works of moral philosophy, Pyrrhus and Cineas, from 1944, and Toward an Ethics of Ambiguity, from 1947. These works have until very recently received very little philosophical attention, often being treated as mere background to The Second Sex. Yet we argue here that they lay the groundwork for a genuinely novel, promising, and systematic moral theory that parallels but also radically transforms Kant’s approach to moral theory in the Groundwork.

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome. 

The Institute of Philosophy hosts a regular workshop series entitled ‘The Practical, the Political, and the Ethical’.
The series was created in 2015 by Véronique Munoz-Dardé (UCL) and Hallvard Lillehammer (Birkbeck) in order to discuss work in progress from visiting speakers. This year the series is convened by Elise Woodard (KCL) and Michael Hannon (Nottingham). Talks are normally 45 minutes (no pre-circulation of the paper), followed by discussion. All are welcome.