Simone de Beauvoir: What it really means to be free
Notes on giants - Number 6
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🏷️ Categories: Literature, Life lessons.
Simone de Beauvoir is one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.
With her existentialist vision, she reflected on freedom, oppression, ethics and human responsibility, breaking with traditional ideas of humans and their capacity to act in the world. Her philosophy seeks to understand the meaning of life, the morality of our societies and the role of women in them.
One of her most relevant texts in this sense is The Ethics of Ambiguity, written just after the horrors of the Second World War, which led her to crude reflections on freedom and our behaviour in society...
Can we be free living in society?
What does it take to be free?
Are you really free or do you just think you are?
Let's see what it really means to be free...
Freedom and its relation to human existence
How would you define freedom?
For Simone, it is an ambiguous concept and is not universal; freedom is a constant process of decision and action that depends on others.
‘Freedom does not consist in doing what we want, but in overcoming what we have for an open future; the existence of others defines my situation and is the condition of my freedom. They oppress me if they take me to prison, but they are not oppressing me if they prevent me from taking my neighbour to prison.’
This fragment is key.
Freedom is not something that can be exercised in isolation.
My freedom is linked to the freedom of others. You cannot be free if you restrict the freedom of others. In other words, freedom is not absolute, but a shared space.
You have the freedom to listen to music at home, but not so loud that it wakes up the whole neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning.
You have the freedom to smoke if you wish, but you cannot smoke in shared enclosed spaces such as restaurants, as the smoke harms others.
You have the freedom to drive your car wherever you want, but you must respect the signs and speed limits to ensure the safety of others.
This is the source of countless conflicts between individuals and entire societies: not seeing that freedom is a shared space. Exercising your freedom carries with it a set of responsibilities, which, if you ignore them, harm others.
‘Human existence is ambiguous because it is halfway between what we are and what we can become; between what is fixed by our situation and what freedom is capable of modifying’.
The 3 types of free people
One of Simone's most revealing ideas is that of the 3 types of false freedom.
1. ‘Sub-person’: The fear of being truly free
This is the person who refuses to take responsibility for his or her life and takes refuge in passivity and resignation.
‘Oppressed by the events of the present, he is bewildered by the darkness of the future, which is full of fearful spectres: war, disease, revolution, fascism, Bolshevism.
Her passivity condemns her to a meaningless life. She is a type of person who fears the future because she is unwilling to face the challenges that life throws at her. Instead of embracing change, he takes refuge in inaction.
We must embrace uncertainty and strive to overcome the challenges that life throws at us.
Anything else will make us suffer even more sooner or later.
2. Serious person: False quest for freedom
Power, money or status are paths to dissatisfaction.
According to Simone, these people dedicate themselves to accumulating material goods or pursuing superficial goals, believing that this will give their life meaning. Sooner or later, however, they will realise that the pursuit was completely in vain.
‘Everything is a threat to this person, because his idols are external, and therefore, despite all precautions, he will never be master of the world, and he will always be disturbed by the uncontrollable course of events’.
The serious person is unable to see that his goals, in the end, will not make him happy.
He does not see that his life and his goals are constructions that force him into a constant struggle, for there will always be something or someone else who has more than he has. This kind of life, which aspires to money or fame, is looking for happiness in the wrong place.
And he will never live free and at peace because of it.
3. The ‘adventurous’ person: Freedom at the expense of others
The adventurous person does not think about the consequences of his actions on others, because his goal is the conquest and assertion of his freedom. Everything else is all the same to him.
‘The adventurous person throws himself enthusiastically into his enterprises, into exploration, conquest, war, speculation, love, politics, but he is not attached to the end towards which he is aiming; he seeks only conquest.’
This kind of freedom is not real freedom, it is selfishness that harms and oppresses others.
They are people who have no regard for others.
The only freedom for Simone is the one that recognises the freedom of others. The adventurous person will become free when he or she acts with enthusiasm in life and at the same time cares for others. That is the moment when she understands that life is a shared space, that freedom is not the same as licentiousness.
When you think about others and not only about yourself.
In today's age, when individualism and living in a bubble that does not care about others is so much promoted, Simone de Beauvoir's ideas are more present than ever.
✍️ Your turn: Do you always try to think about how your actions affect others? Have you gone through all these stages before you reached true freedom? I think we've all been through these stages or are coming out of some of them.
💭 Quote of the day: ‘Inculturation imprisons the human being as much as a prison’. Simone de Beauvoir.
See you soon, take care! 👋
References 📚
De Beauvoir, S. The Ethics of Ambiguity.
Interesting. I live in a place where libertarianism is a big deal. The motto of the Libertarian Party is "do whatever your want as long as you don't harm anyone or their property." Sounds good (and simple?) on paper, but it requires thinking about how one's activities will affect others. A lot of "libertarians" around here seem to forget that second part of the motto, though. So, their idea of freedom is skewed if not downright fantastical. The Wild West ethic seems to resonate with people, especially in rural places. Lots of room to make big mistakes. As our world becomes more crowded, though, those big places become smaller and the imperative to think about one's actions gets squeezed.