Moral Idealism and Political Idealism: An Existentialist View

A discussion led by,

Jacqueline Victor, PhD

Join us during our Winter Liberal Arts Discussion Series

A collaboration with

The University of Chicago Graham School
hosting presentations and discussions of original research

How do we navigate between our moral ideals and political reality?

 The existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir provided an intriguing answer to this question in her 1945 essay “Moral Idealism and Political Realism”: neither “ideals” nor “reality” can tell us how to act. For Beauvoir, both ways of thinking involve outsourcing – or externalizing – the responsibility that we alone have for our actions. Instead of acting according to an ethics, she argues that we create our ethics through our actions themselves.

Beauvoir’s thinking about these ideas was philosophical but not abstract. She published “Moral Idealism and Political Realism” after having lived through the Nazi occupation of Paris, witnessing firsthand the ways in which people responded to a morally urgent and dangerous situation – and later justified their actions. In her view, it was essential for humanity to find a new basis for ethical thinking, as the existing moral frameworks had failed on a large scale, and no longer functioned as a guide to our actions (in fact, she argues they never really had). This work is a precursor to her seminal 1947 book The Ethics of Ambiguity.

 Jacqueline Victor is an instructor in the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago Graham School. She holds a PhD in French literature from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on medieval literature, but she has more recently become interested in modernity and its sense of an irretrievable break with traditional forms of humanity. But what does this mean in practice? How do we navigate between our ideals and political reality? And what does this have to do with existentialist philosophy?

 Join us for a discussion in which we will walk through and discuss Beauvoir’s incisive essay, as well as its implication for ourselves.

A free event but reservations are strongly encouraged as space is limited,

to reserve your spot, please email: info@kibbitznest.org

or use the RSVP link above.

Source:: https://graham.uchicago.edu

Photo credit: Antigone and Creon, The British Museum, creativecommons.org/licensesby-nc-sa4.0