Perspective

Simone de Beauvoir is the author of The Ethics of Ambiguity and so the perspective of the book is entirely her own. Beauvoir is one of the most prominent French existentialists of the post-war period. Existentialists, very generally, hold that the purpose of philosophy is to aid individuals in dealing with the challenges of individual existence, her emotions and choices. Many existentialists have held that individuals are responsible for giving their own lives meaning and that living passionately and happily is within the grasp of all people. Many focus on how the individual achieves a fulfilling life and what constitutes such a life. They also deal with the question of what life can mean in a world without God. Existentialism became popular in part as a way to assert the primacy and value of the individual in the fact of totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century and in...