A review by samreads97
The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir

4.0

I did it! I read philosophy! Did I understand all of it? No! But I do actually feel like I got something out of it, and the fact that I finished it is a personal triumph. It got really redundant the last 30 pages, and some of the references and philosophical “proofs” definitely went over my head, but I did get something out of this! I loved the whole idea of ambiguity, namely in the individual vs. mankind as a whole. I am a STAUNCH collectivist, probably due to my hatred of Ayn Rand and communist leanings. However I loved how this book framed the importance of the individual, just not at the expense of freedom. Beauvoir rightly critiques communist philosophy for wanting mankind to assimilate into one homogenous mass, from our art to self-expression to how we structure society. I think it’s an important to say, yes, mankind can come together and everyone deserves freedom (even… *gasp* poor people and minorities!), but not at the expense of individual thinking and culture and pursuits. I also love her rejection of Nihilism and even Absurdism (which I like much more than Nihilism) and I feel like I actually understand better what existentialism is. I will probably not retain a ton of this, and like I said, a lot of this was probably lost on me, but I read it and I’m glad I did.