Alterities in Simone de Beauvoir's thought: a materialist philosophical project

• Grant number: 23/00481-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Yara Adario Frateschi
• Grantee: Bruna Mello Gomes Bernardes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/04797-5 - Women's alterity and other Others in The Second Sex (1949), BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The objective of this doctoral research is to understand the philosophical project of Simone de Beauvoir from the recognition of alterities in the author's intellectual trajectory. A considerable part of the critical reading of Beauvoir's life and work tends to recognize only her theoretical contributions in the feminist field. Little is observed, however, of the dimension that the recognition of other alterities occupies in the constitution of Beauvoir's thought. Such a position ends up giving more relevance to "The Second Sex", her best-known and most studied theoretical work, disregarding Beauvoir's intense intellectual and political trajectory, which persisted until the last moments of her life, in 1986. In this manner, I intend to analyze Simone de Beauvoir's philosophical project based on the recognition of gender, race, class and age alterities. The hypothesis I raise is that the author's thought can be better understood taking into account its dialectical materialist character, since Beauvoir understands alterities not as separate entities, which do not depend on each other, but as relational and situated, against the background of criticism of the situation of alterity in capitalism. To do so, I will work with the following writings: "America Day by Day" (1947), "The Second Sex" (1949), "The Long March" (1957), "The Situation of Women Today" (1966) and "Old Age" (1970). (AU)