Abstract

In this dissertation I contribute to philosophical readings of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir arguing that it is best understood as a phenomenological study, and that such a reading provides the most comprehensive overview of Beauvoir's aims, methods, and conceptual framework. The interpretation I develop proposes that rather than putting forth a theory of gender, Beauvoir set out to question and uncover what it means to be a woman, descriptively-phenomenologically moving from scientific facts, historical theories, conventional beliefs and myths to the texture of lived experience. In addition to furnishing a coherent framework for understanding her approach to gender, which is far from outdated, this reading discerns a considerable influence of contemporary philosophers other than Jean-Paul Sartre. Following Beauvoir's own cue in the first chapter of Book I, I investigate her debt to the philosophical perspectives of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger who view the body, not as a biological thing among other objects, but as a situation, "our hold on the world and the outline of our projects" . I consider how the ideas of these philosophers, not only about the lived body but also about truth, freedom, and intersubjectivity, inform Beauvoir's own original project. Although the parallels between her ideas and those of Merleau-Ponty have received some critical attention, the importance of Heidegger's work to Beauvoir's thought has remained relatively unexplored. I aim to show that the phenomenological dimensions of The Second Sex need to be further examined if we are to appreciate its philosophical import and enduring relevance