En obeslutsam etik? : Simone de Beauvoir i gränslandet mellan marxistisk och liberal individualism

This thesis contributes with a new reading of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s The ethics of ambiguity. Earlier research has shown close ties to Marxism and relational theories on autonomy. The purpose of the thesis is to examine whether the ethics also contains a normative liberal individualism, and furthermore to relate this to the criticism that has been directed towards liberal individualism in academia and today’s society. In this way the thesis contributes partly by closing the research gap regarding the relationship between Beauvoir and liberalism, and partly also by developing theories on liberal individualism. The analysis finds that the autonomy of Beauvoir resembles that of liberalism. Furthermore, it is shown that Beauvoir’s argument for human agency should lead to an ideal of individual negative liberty. Beauvoir also holds an ideal of self-development that in some ways corresponds to liberal self-development but that is mainly influenced by Marxism. It seems that the way Beauvoir could justify negative liberty could be a way to bridge the gap between liberalism and its critics, by arguing for negative liberty through a relational perspective.