November 19

Today, you'll spent more time getting familiar with the details of Beauvoir's vision of good living. Specifically, we'll deepen our understanding of "freedom" and "ambiguity" by drawing out some of concepts Beauvoir uses to make sense of them. We'll discuss her focus on concrete particularity, the notion of will, and––perhaps most importantly––her notion of meaning. For Beauvoir, living well isn't just living pleasurably, or correctly, or even virtuously. It's living a life filled with meaning. But what is meaning? What does it mean to say that we will create it (as opposed to, say, discovering it)? Why does she think the concept of "meaning" only has meaning at the level of concrete, particular life?