I’d meant to post this earlier, but it’s still not too late: my friend Monica Vilhauer is running a course on “Living Authentically,” focused on the work of Simone de Beauvoir via Skye Cleary’s new book on that subject, How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment. Starts a week from tomorrow, Sunday, August 6, 10 am-12 noon, Pacific Standard Time.
I highly recommend every part of this package: Monica, Skye, and Simone. I know one of these ladies personally, one by social osmosis, and one by reputation: I’ve done a workshop on alienation with Monica through her organization Curious Soul Philosophy (which I very much enjoyed); I feel sure that I’ve met Skye somewhere in New York-area philosophy circles, but can’t remember where; and well, Simone de Beauvoir is Simone de Beauvoir. You’re guaranteed to learn something valuable from this trio–about yourself, and about the world you inhabit.
Alienation is a problem easier dismissed than escaped or avoided: there are more incentives for wishing it away than dealing with it. But it’s there. And if it is, it’s a question where that leaves you as far as living authentically is concerned. We each have to answer that question for ourselves–however many of us that amounts to. This workshop will help.
Policy of Truth 
You gotta hand it to those algorithms: this is where I encountered Skye Cleary!
I was single at the time.
LikeLike
Does the dark side of Simone Beauvoir cast a shadow over the idea of authenticity? Sexual abuse of minors, trafficking youths to Sartre, pushing to normalize pedophilia… doesn’t that highlight the need for societal and moral constraints to an individuals’s ability to live authentically? I’m concerned with Beauvoir being held up as a model for living. How does the book deal with these issues?
LikeLike
It’s a good question, or set of them. My short answer is, I don’t know enough about the issue to give you a direct answer. I can pass your question on to Skye and Monica, and see what they say. But here is my indirect answer:
The first thing is, I know in a very broad brush way that Beauvoir and Sartre were involved in some unsavory, possibly criminal, sexual activities, but I’d want a detailed forensic accounting before I passed judgment (or expected anyone else to). That’s a general principle, not some specific brief I hold for them in particular.
Second, most philosophers in the history of the endeavor have skeletons in their closet. The skeletons don’t invalidate their insights, but I agree, they do call for caution. That holds whether the skeleton is a concealed personal malfeasance or an overtly defended position. So if I were covering this material, caution would be part of it.
But most fundamentally, I think that any call for authenticity is bound to assume the legitimacy of at least some moral constraints. A call for authentic living is not a call to throw morality overboard, even if involves throwing some parts of it overboard.
As a postscript, I guess I’d say that it’s open (or ought to be open) to someone doing the workshop to conclude that alienation is preferable to authenticity. I haven’t read Skye’s book, but I know Monica pretty well, and she’s as far from an indoctrinative workshop leader as one is apt to encounter.
LikeLike
Incidentally, though I know you’ve commented at least once before here, I somehow was not previously aware of the fact you had a blog of your own. I just noticed, and am glad to have discovered it.
LikeLike
Thanks Irfan for the kind words.
LikeLike
Yes, I address this in the book. What they did was not illegal, however it was unethical and an abuse of power, also inconsistent with their philosophies.
LikeLike
Just want to say, I appreciate the way Cleary illuminates the complicated nature of Beauvoir’s and Sartre’s romantic relationship (with each other and with their “secondary lovers,” some of whom were (problematically) students). She does not attempt to make Beauvoir the ideal of authenticity or tie anything up in a pretty little bow. She keeps open the complexity and difficulty of existentialism, ethics, and the human condition. She shows the ways in which Beauvoir’s theory can guide us, and the ways in which Beauvoir’s own life exhibits both successes and failures in trying to put that theory into practice . . . much like any of us trying to seize freedom, create our own path, deal with society’s often-times alienating expectations, and live ethically with others. (I appreciate how much, among the existentialists, Beauvoir-the-philosopher cares about ethics and was able to articulate what an existential ethic might look like. Cleary does a great job explaining this in accessible and concrete terms). Cleary shows us there’s much to learn from Beauvoir’s theory, as well as her (and our!) practical successes and failures. I’m reading the book for the second time as I prep for my workshop, and it’s such an enjoyable read. It’s going to make for great discussion, life-reflection, and creative new practical experiments!
LikeLike
Ok, thanks. That helps. Good to hear those issues weren’t papered over, and the limits and difficulties of authenticity are examined.
LikeLike
Thanks this may be helpful to a couple graduate students
LikeLike
I couldn’t help noticing this, and noting its relevance to this post, in more ways than one (ht: Kurt Keefner):
https://unherd.com/2023/08/the-four-thinkers-who-took-on-the-mob/#:~:text=During%20the%20Thirties%20and%20Forties,individual%20versus%20the%20social%20world.
LikeLike