The Ethics Of Ambiguity By Beauvoir

“To attain his truth, man must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity of his being but, on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it,” (13). Throughout The Ethics of Ambiguity Simone de Beauvoir sets out to explain her idea of what freedom and ambiguity is, the ethics behind those ideas, and what makes us realize our own freedom.

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, “Man is condemned to be free.” Beauvoir takes this statement and expands on it to explain her ideas of freedom and how one attains or attempts to dismiss it. The philosopher Dostoievsky stated, “If God does not exist everything is permitted,” (15) however Beauvoir disagrees. If God does not exist man has a greater responsibility to do what is deemed right and moral “He bears the responsibility

for a world which is not the work of a strange power, but himself,” (16). There is no God to dismiss unjust actions or use as a scapegoat for unexplainable events. Man is free when he makes his own choices and accepts the consequences and outcomes of said choices. We use our ambiguity to motivate us to find a purpose, and we assume our freedom through projects that we choose at any given moment. There is no God or higher power to give validity to the project; rather it is oneself who gives v to the project.
“We could indeed assert our freedom against all restraint if we agreed to renounce the particularity of our projects,” (29). This is to say that we can determine ourselves free at all times if we don’t give any validity to projects and consider every one a success. However this is not really being free. At the other end of the spectrum there are people who are so afraid of failing that they essentially do nothing, or only do things that they know how to do. This is not freedom either. “Popular opinion is quite right in admiring a man who, having been ruined or having suffered an accident, knows how to gain the upper hand, that is, renew his engagement in the world, thereby strongly asserting the independence of freedom in relation to thing,” (29). Freedom is rising above failure and choosing to pursue new projects, standing in the face of failure still, but willing to move forward with the hope of new possibilities.
Up until this point Beauvoir has stated that freedom comes from within ourselves, and we can choose to be free or attempt to run away from it.

How then, Beauvoir asks, “Could men, originally separated, get together?” (18) This is when Beauvoir starts to discuss ethics and the main topic of her book. As, according to existentialism, there is no god or higher power, man has a moral obligation to others, and those morals are essentially a result of our freedom. “To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision,” (24). It is through this moral obligation that men come together. Beauvoir gives the example of restricting a child’s freedom, and how a child has such a vast future that it must be protected. Parents have a moral obligation to look out for their children, to ensure that they have a future open to them, and in a sense protect them from the world until they are ready to accept their freedom. It cannot be expected of a child to understand the concept of freedom and make decisions that will potentially cast them in to the future and open up more possibilities. Does this mean that we can only intervene in a person’s life through the child-parent relationship, or are there other scenarios where such an intervention is permitted? Certainly Beauvoir must agree with an intervention involving the unfortunate case of one being in a coma, incapable of making decisions regarding their health and their future. Such an example is drastic but still worth

considering.
Beauvoir also states that man comes together based off of the fact that in order to be free, other men must also be free.

We validate our existence based off of others; “Man can find a justification of his own existence only in the existence of other men,” (72). We are constantly viewing, judging and comparing ourselves to others to feel some sort of validity that what we are doing is the right thing and that there is a purpose to our existence. Man needs some sort of justification, to ease an internal anxiety and answer the question, “what’s the use?” It’s as if man is free to make his own choices, and he needs to do so in order to be free, but wants confirmation that what he’s doing is important. There is comfort in knowing that others have made similar decisions and that those decisions had positive outcomes that shaped a desirable

future.
Lastly, it’s important to touch on where our awareness of freedom and subjectivity comes from, as Beauvoir does when she discusses childhood and how it is the source of mans unfortunate choices and unhappiness. Children are born in to a world that they did not create or have any influence over. They perceive the world as a finite place where everything just is. They adhere to the rules they are told to follow and look up to adults as divinities who will protect and watch over them. While this sounds restricting, children can escape the anguish of freedom as the decisions and projects they take part in affect no one but themselves. To the child the world is finite, and his actions won’t change anything. It is only when the child starts to develop a sense of astonishment and curiosity that he begins to develop his sense of subjectivity. He begins to ask questions once he notices flaws in the world and contradictions among adults. He wonders what will happen if he acts against the norms that have been established for him.
Around the time of adolescence he is thrown in to a world that is no longer ready-made: he must participate in the world and contribute to it. He must accept his freedom and begin to choose who he will become. “It is always on the basis of what he has been that a man decides upon what he wants to be,” (40). Childhood experiences shape who we become and effect every decision. The burden of this new found freedom weighs down the adolescent and he yearns for the time when he was unaware of such a concept. Thus the concept of nostalgia is formed. Man realizes that the decisions made as a child, that which were thought to be insignificant, have in fact influenced his being and will forever effect his life.
While the