Existential Courage: De Beauvoir

Existential courage for Simone De Beauvoir is to acknowledge the ambiguity of human existence and to accept the struggle each of us experiences to be both a sovereign subject and a passive object. Even when she speaks about the liberation of women she bears in mind that women and men are each exposed to that ambiguity. Men opt to pretend they are sovereign subjects and that women or slaves, or other minorities can be their passive objects. But for women or people who find themselves in a minority are often tempted to opt to give in to being the other because then they do not have to stand in the courage of affirming the ambiguity and choose for responsibility.