Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, & Feminism

Download or read book Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, & Feminism written by Nancy Bauer and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir notes that "a man never begins by establishing himself as an individual of a certain sex: his being a man poses no problem." Nancy Bauer begins her book by asking: "Then what kind of a problem does being a woman pose?" Bauer's aim is to show that in answering this question The Second Sex dramatizes the extent to which being a woman poses a philosophical problem. In exploring what it might mean to philosophize as a woman, Beauvoir produced a book that not only sparked the contemporary feminist movement but also, Bauer argues, made an important but still profoundly undervalued contribution to the philosophical tradition.