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Simone de Beauvoir and the Praxis School: Practical thoughts of a theoretical feminist

Writing about a feminist praxis Andrea Nye concludes that the work of Simone de Beauvoir was made valuable by its conflict between philosophical heritage and practical feminism. It is precisely this conflict, a conflict between theory and practice, i.e. between (hu)man who theorizes the world and a (wo)man who experiences the world, that opened up a space for a feminist and epistemological critique of the fundamentally sexist (philosophical and scientific) western thought. By overcoming that conflict, de Beauvoir paved the way for an authentic feminist theory and practice flourishing on an active and engaged confrontation with the existing, everyday injustices and problems women as Others and other Others faced. In her break from a traditional philosophical detachment from the physical world and its ambiguities de Beauvoir was joined by the Yugoslav members of the Praxis group. Although from another theoretical tradition and with a different political agenda, the Praxis thinkers shared de Beauvoir’s interest in questions of contemporary life. Their theoretical contribution was twofold: methodologically, they have conceptualized the theory of social sciences as critical and applied ; ontologically, they have, under the influence of Marx's critical and revolutionary thought, understood human nature as inherently creative and oriented toward the (revolutionary) change of the inadequate existent conditions. In my presentation, I will address at least two common traits of Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy and the Praxis School. The first concerns their mutual existentialist understanding of a human as a being in the making. The second refers to their orientation toward the necessity of social change, a necessity they found in the inadequacy of human condition and in the human’s propensity toward its transcendence. Their philosophical opposition to the human’s and the society’s status quo (understood as unnatural) while maintaining the sharp intellectual critique of the existent (characterized by women’s oppression and workers' class struggles) made de Beauvoir and the Praxis group often criticized for their views, the latter suffering serious political retributions. In the end, by drawing a parallel with the de Beauvoir’s dilemma between existential and feminist philosophy, between theories that negate and advocate praxis, I would like to conclude with a contemporary review of the often toilsome relationship between academic work and social activism(s), between knowledge production practices questioning social engagement and those propagating them.

Simone de Beauvoir, Praxis orientation, philosophy, existentialism

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