Beauvoir and Western Thought from Plato to Butler Beauvoir and Western Thought from Plato to Butler edited by Shannon M. MuSSett and WilliaM S. WilkerSon SUNY P R E S S Published by State univerSity of neW y ork PreSS albany © 2012 State university of new york all rights reserved Printed in the united States of america no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. no part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. for information, contact State university of new york Press www.sunypress.edu Production and book design, laurie Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beauvoir and Western thought from Plato to Butler / edited by Shannon M. Mussett and William S. Wilkerson. p. cm. includes bibliographical references and index. iSBn 978-1-4384-4455-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Beauvoir, Simone de, 1908–1986. 2. Philosophy. i. Mussett, Shannon M. ii. Wilkerson, William S., 1968– B2430.B344B44 2012 194—dc23 2011053328 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my father in thanks, William S. Wilkerson To my parents for all of their encouragement, Shannon M. Mussett Contents acknowledgments ix editors’ introduction 1 the literary Grounding of Metaphysics: Beauvoir and Plato on Philosophical fiction 15 Shannon M. Mussett existence, freedom, and the festival: rousseau and Beauvoir Sally J. Scholz 35 a Different kind of universality: Beauvoir and kant on universal ethics 55 William S. Wilkerson Simone de Beauvoir and the Marquis de Sade: Contesting the logic of Sovereignty and the Politics of terror and rape 75 Debra Bergoffen Beauvoir and Marx 91 William L. McBride Saving time: temporality, recurrence, and transcendence in Beauvoir’s nietzschean Cycles 103 Elaine P. Miller Beauvoir and husserl: an unorthodox approach to The Second Sex 125 Sara Heinämaa vii viii ContEnt S Beauvoir and Bergson: a Question of influence 153 Margaret A. Simons Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty: Philosophers of ambiguity 171 Gail Weiss from Beauvoir to irigaray: Making Meaning out of Maternity 191 Erin McCarthy ambiguity and Precarious life: tracing Beauvoir’s legacy in the Work of Judith Butler 211 Ann v. Murphy true Philosophers: Beauvoir and bell 227 bell hooks Contributors 237 index 241 Acknowledgments as is only fitting, my first thank you is to Bill Wilkerson, who instantly took up this project from my first pitch to a table of Beauvoireans many years ago. Working with him has been nothing short of ideal. he is generous, intelligent, hardworking, and philosophically imaginative. he is also a dear friend. i would also like to thank all of the contributors to this collection. your work has inspired me deeply and will affect future scholars in profound ways. further, i want to thank kris Mclain for her help with researching and indexing this volume, Peg Simons for everything she does for Beauvoir scholarship, and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier and Constance Borde for their devotion and work on the new translation of The Second Sex. My own essay benefited tremendously from input received from Daniel Graham, Bill Wilkerson, and Michael Shaw. finally, i would like to thank my family: Mike, Cleo, and Milo, for their love and support over the years as we saw this project through to completion. Shannon M. Mussett first, i must say more than thanks to Shannon, who thought up the idea for this anthology. i just happened to be in a bar at the right time and felt lucky to see a brilliant idea when it appeared before me. Since then, i’ve been fortunate to work with somebody who is so smart, so hard working, and so funny, and who i now call a dear friend—thanks, buddy. next, i’d like to thank our contributors: as i read these essays again and again, i never cease to feel privileged to have such excellent and inspiring scholarship collected together; thank you all for bringing your best work to show the continuing power of Beauvoir’s thought. My thanks also go to numerous friends and colleagues, among them, Brian Martine, Peg Simons, Sarah laChance adams, Debra Bergoffen, Gail Weiss, and linda Martín alcoff; and to the editors at Suny, who supported us without qualification from the start. finally, gratitude goes to my partner keith, who sat by my side, earning his graduate degree while i worked on this collection—forever this collection and your success will be intertwined in my mind. William S. Wilkerson ix