Nina Simone

1- What are the various interpretations that can applied to the word “meaningful” in the question “Is life meaningful?” How does each interpretation impact the resultant answer? There are two interpretations that can be applied to the word “meaningful” in the question “Is life meaningful?” The first is that of objective meaning. This means that in order for life to have meaning, it must have objective meaning. Objective in this context refers to the independence of other’s thoughts or what…

First published in French in 1949, and deemed provacative enough to be placed on the Vatican 's list of banned books, Simone de Beauvoir 's feminist novel, The Second Sex, is considered to be one of the foundational works of second wave feminist theory. The book is an adept exploration of female otherness and oppression, and puts forward many theories that are still discussed today, one of which is “the woman in love”; in which she details – as the title suggests – the way women seek out and…

Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. While the feminist movement is important in the present day, the play written in 1947 by Tennessee Williams became known for its portrayal of the dynamics between men and women. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, feminism plays the main role. Taking place after the second world war, the men of this play assume that they have more power than women. While, in reality, the women have the same or greater…

focus on the negative aspects of human life and human consciousness led to a philosophy centered on war, suffering, and violence. This focus on violence remains when they discuss the French colonization of Algeria. The existentialist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir, Frantz Fanon, and Jean-Paul Sartre all believe that violence is the only means of casting off the chains of colonial oppression. Although they are correct in this assertion, they fail to recognize the full implications of this claim,…

“Existentialism is a Humanism” is based on a lecture that Sartre gave in Paris on Monday, October 29, 1945. This short exposition is the perfect student’s guide to existential thought in philosophy. For Sartre, existentialism is primarily defined by the idea that “existence precedes essence (22).” At the start of his lecture, he discusses how objects are manufactured with a pre-determined purpose or “essence” in mind thus, their essence precedes their existence. He states that many people’s…

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris on January 9th, 1908 to a Catholic mother and an atheist father. At the age of fourteen, she followed her father’s steps and practiced atheism. When Beauvoir was twenty-one, she attended the Sorbonne and specialized in philosophy, a male dominated field. She was the ninth woman in France to pass the comprehensive philosophy exam and to receive her degree. During her studies, Beauvoir met philosopher, novelist, and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. Both…

Freedom can mean many things to many people, freedom to me means being liberated from what once held one in bondage. Although, freedom according to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary gives a concise definition which states: “Liberation from slavery or restraint or from the other power of another: independence. Nevertheless, Martin Luther king Jr. is a well-known activist who fought for the freedom for African Americans. Also know for the March and his I have a dream speech. He wrote a letter…

gender inequality created a huge difference between men and women, placing women’s rights under men’s jurisdiction, which dictated what women were and were not allowed to do. This issue was analyzed by the French and feminist supporter and writer Simone de Beauvoir in her text, “Woman as Other.” In her essay de Beauvoir explains the entire concept of women being considered the “other” gender apart from the men. Touching upon the same issue Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote…

like Simone De Seaviour did not make that fight any easier. She believed women that women were the second sex. She also believed that it would take a lot of work to have women be independent from men. While social influences like John Stuart Mills and Virginia Woolf believed any woman could be independent and as equal as men are. They believed it would be great for women and for the society. The view that Mill’s and Woolf’s had on women’s role in society was slightly different from Simone De…

In Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, her existentialist view point is heavily felt throughout this historical study of women. Often viewed as a radical, Beauvoir sets out to explore the many beliefs or definitions in regards to femininity. She proposes that women are oppressed by men through men’s depiction of women as the “other” or the object. Man is the subject, the self, the one, the absolute, the positive, the creator and the possessor of transcendence. Women are demoted as particular,…