Quotation
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“Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism · Modern · 1949
What does it mean?
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men. They describe it from their own point of view and confuse that point of view with absolute truth. A rival reading hears a conspiracy: men sat down and invented culture in order to dominate. She is describing a result, law, myth, and science spoken as if from nowhere, while the speaker is situated. Another reading thinks the sentence is refuted by any woman who writes. She is explaining why women's writing has had to answer a world already described.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Parshley's English of the introduction. The confusion of a point of view with absolute truth is the epistemological claim. It is not a claim that no man can see anything, and not a claim that a woman's view is automatically innocent.
Where it comes from
The Second Sex, introduction, in H. M. Parshley's translation
Approximate date: 1949.
How to use it
A history syllabus in a school in Kent calls itself 'the story' and is surprised when someone asks whose. The introduction predicts the surprise. It does not say the syllabus is empty. It says the claim to be the whole story is the confusion of a point of view with truth. Adding one woman to the list does not, by itself, end the confusion. It can be the start of noticing it.
A mindset reading
This is an epistemic claim, cousin to later standpoint arguments, and it is still her sentence in 1949. Do not update it into a view she did not hold, that no description can be better than another. She spends the book arguing that some descriptions are myths.
Understand the philosophy
The introduction is doing both ontology, the Other, and epistemology, this sentence. They meet. The Subject who does not notice he is situated is the same figure as the one who calls himself the Absolute. Parshley is the English.
- knowledge
- society
- power
FAQ
What does it mean?
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men. They describe it from their own point of view and confuse that point of view with absolute truth. A rival reading hears a conspiracy: men sat down and invented culture in order to dominate. She is describing a result, law, myth, and science spoken as if from nowhere, while the speaker is situated. Another reading thinks the sentence is refuted by any woman who writes. She is explaining why women's writing has had to answer a world already described.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Parshley's English of the introduction. The confusion of a point of view with absolute truth is the epistemological claim. It is not a claim that no man can see anything, and not a claim that a woman's view is automatically innocent.
Which work is it in?
The Second Sex, introduction, in H. M. Parshley's translation Approximate date: 1949.