Quotation
Last reviewed:
“To will oneself free is to effect the transition from nature to morality by establishing a genuine freedom on the original upsurge of our existence.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism · Modern · 1947
What does it mean?
To will oneself free is to move from nature to morality, by taking the bare upsurge of existence and making a genuine freedom out of it. Existence gives you the upsurge. It does not give you the ethics. A rival reading thinks this is still egoism: I will my freedom first, and other people wait. The book will say that to will oneself free is also to will others free, a sentence already in this library. Another reading thinks 'nature to morality' drags in a metaphysics she does not need.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Frechtman's sentence. Freedom is not a fact that is already moral. Morality begins when freedom wills itself, rather than remaining the bare upsurge of existence. This is a different sentence from 'to will oneself free is also to will others free', which is already in the library.
Where it comes from
The Ethics of Ambiguity, in Bernard Frechtman's translation
Approximate date: 1947.
How to use it
Someone says they were 'just being free' when they left other people to manage the consequences, in a house share or a campaign group in London. Frechtman's sentence says the upsurge is not yet morality. Morality is the willing. The willing, in her book, does not get to stop at the front door of the self. The card that says so is the companion. This one is the step before it.
A mindset reading
Do not merge this sentence with the companion about others. They are a sequence. The sequence is the chapter. A single tattoo that says 'will yourself free' keeps the upsurge and loses the transition, which is the only part that is ethical.
Understand the philosophy
Bernard Frechtman, 1948 in English, for the 1947 essay. The sentence is in the opening chapter. It is verified as his wording of her claim, and it is kept separate from the paraphrase already filed under beauvoir-freedom.
- freedom
- ethics
- self
FAQ
What does it mean?
To will oneself free is to move from nature to morality, by taking the bare upsurge of existence and making a genuine freedom out of it. Existence gives you the upsurge. It does not give you the ethics. A rival reading thinks this is still egoism: I will my freedom first, and other people wait. The book will say that to will oneself free is also to will others free, a sentence already in this library. Another reading thinks 'nature to morality' drags in a metaphysics she does not need.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Frechtman's sentence. Freedom is not a fact that is already moral. Morality begins when freedom wills itself, rather than remaining the bare upsurge of existence. This is a different sentence from 'to will oneself free is also to will others free', which is already in the library.
Which work is it in?
The Ethics of Ambiguity, in Bernard Frechtman's translation Approximate date: 1947.