Simone de Beauvoir and the feminist revolution
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Study the ideas of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her partner Jean-Paul Sartre in this free course on existentialism. Explore the concept of freedom, the role of women as ‘Other’, and develop critical skills in analyzing philosophical texts.
In this free course you will study the ideas of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986). In doing so you will also briefly study the philosophy of Beauvoir’s lifelong partner, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The type of philosophy that links them is
Called ‘existentialism’. Beauvoir and Sartre are the foremost philosophers of French existentialism. You will read extracts of Beauvoir’s work and learn about the existential view of the human being as free and responsible for his or her actions.
You will discover that Beauvoir argues that women are generally conceived of as ‘Other’, that is different from a supposed neutral human being.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A113 Revolutions63and is part of a set of four
OpenLearn courses, covering Revolutions of the Sixties64.
Transcript
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
Get acquainted with the works and ideas of twentieth-century philosopher Simone de Beauvoir
Develop an understanding of the key ideas of existentialism, its conception of the human being, freedom and the ‘Other’
Develop your ability to analyse modern philosophical texts
Develop your critical skills by evaluating philosophical ideas.
