Ambiguity can be defined as a lack of precise meaning or interpretation, so how can we describe human existence as “ambiguous”? Surely, there must be some essence, or characteristic thing, that we can use to solidify the meaning of our existence. However, it becomes difficult to pin down exactly what every human existence has in common. Dreams of fame and fortune motivate and consume the lives of some people, others dedicate their lives to help people less fortunate, and still there are those that sit on a couch all day watching TV as their years monotonously pass by. In The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir develops an existentialist view that explains the details of an ambiguous existence and how those who exist should act in this …show more content…
In succumbing to this type of detention, the individual becomes nothing more than a cog in the prison’s network of operations: a thing. Thus, what defines a legitimate existence is that of freedom.
To be free is to have the unregulated power to choose one’s own values. For de Beauvoir, freedom is the characteristic with which we are able to describe our existence: “Freedom is the source from which all significations and all values spring. It is the original condition of all justification of existence” (24). Freedom entails a choice of one option over another, and one’s choice cannot be predetermined, lest she be unfree. It follows that the freedom of choice for all values, actions, beliefs, thoughts creates an existence that is indeterminate, ambiguous, and is only justified by assigning meaning using this freedom. It is therefore necessary that an appropriate reaction and critical analysis of a situation take place when exerting one’s own freedom in the world.
One may then ask, “How do I know that I am acting appropriately, or morally, if my existence and everyone else’s is ambiguous?” De Beauvoir would respond, somewhat cryptically, “To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one in the same decision” (24). It may seem counterintuitive to think of freedom as being the source of morality: How can there be any sense of ethics, or morality, when anyone is free to do as they please with no natural or supernatural law to dictate actions
Sartre's perspective on freedom is “We will freedom for the sake of freedom. And through it, we discover that our freedom depends entirely on the freedom of others and that their freedom depends on ours. Those who hide their freedom behind deterministic excuses, I will call cowards. Those who pretend that their own existence was necessary, I will call scum”. In other words, Sartre’s believes that freedom is absolute, and the existence of one's freedom. Every man values stand for themselves, as the freedom is the foundation of each individual's values. Human freedom is made up of consciousness ability to get out of the sense that human beings can not pass to be free. Sartre also mentions that from freedom, one is able to change its attitude
Prisons hide prisoners from society. “If an inmate population is shut in, the free community is shut out, and the vision of men held in custody is, in part, prevented from arising to prick the conscience of those who abide by the social rules” (Sykes, 1958, 8). The prison is an instrument of the state. However, the prison reacts and acts based on other groups in the free community. Some believe imprisonment
One of the greatest and more fundamental gifts of life is the autonomy that comes with being a sentiment human being. This hasn’t always been considered a human right, however, and many eastern hemispheres are struggling to catch on to the concept that people should be allowed to make the decisions they choose without the external pressure to do otherwise. Thus, the question that should be asked is whether or not every human being on this planet is free, whether they should be free and what does free really mean. For many, freedom is all about that ability to to choose what they want, make their own decision and be able to move around as they please. Freedom is about equity, free speech and the guarantee of life, no matter how good or bad.
Ambiguity is a concept I came across while reading The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. The novel discussed numerous paradoxes of the human experience, and thus stimulated my mind into exploring branches of philosophy previously unknown to me. Though the concept is a simple one, the source of ambiguity is much more complicated. From my reading of this story and study in a psychology class, I learned that one’s natural instinct and nurturing environment is what affects one’s perspective. Equally important, no matter how similar common the human condition is, everyone is different. No person has the same life experiences, and thus has a different perspective. These conflicting perspectives are what lead to ambiguity, which leads me to quite a harsh
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion,” is a quote written by Albert Camus, which displays the complexity of defining the term freedom. Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “The Flies,” defines the concept of freedom as the accountability of one’s own guilt, which allows individuals to recognize their own freedom. Furthermore, an individual that accepts accountability for one’s own guilt and responsibility for the city, or complete isolation, is living in freedom. Likewise, Zora Neal Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God explores the notion of being or becoming absolutely free, finding her voice,
Even though prisoners are incarcerated, they still are entitled to certain rights. There is a lot of debate about which rights prisoners should have because they can’t have too much freedom, and they also can’t have too little freedom. If inmates have much freedom, chaos would reign over the facility. No inmate would learn to truly change their ways and fit back into the community successfully. If too little freedom is given, inmates would be neglected and treated like animals. The perfect balance is needed to achieve a functional correctional facility.
Equalizing the constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the jail or prison can create great strain on not only the correctional facilities’ staff but on the inmates as well. The treatment of prisoners is typically left completely to the prudence of prison administrators and other correctional officials. With that being said, this paper will discuss the differences between harmonizing those constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the facility. It will also explain the rights that prisoners are required to have, and how these rights are balanced within other aspects of the correctional institution.
An individual with “Free Will” is capable of making vital decisions and choices in life with own free consent. The individual chooses these decisions without any outside influence from a set of “alternative possibilities.” The idea of “free will” imposes a certain kind of power on an individual to make decisions of which he or she is morally responsible. This implies that “free will” would include a range of aspects such as originality, moral value, and self-governance. However, in life, individuals may not be free in making decisions. The aspect of freedom could entail remarkably a high status action and achievement in an individual’s life whose attainment could be close to impossibility. Often, people make
The word freedom is often associated with the idea of an unfettered liberty to select from a range of alternatives coupled with a sense that our actions will not affect our natural state.
Sartre proposes an interesting view on free will when he says, "either man is wholly determined or else man is wholly free." This quote shows us that Sartre believes that man is free to do what he wants. For Sartre, freedom is the most basic value, which renders possible all other values the way our fundamental plan precedes and grounds our small choices. In that sense freedom is the source of all values. It is not logically possible to make sense of human responsibility and notions of justice without a conception of free will. This is because it is free will that allows us as humans to choose and make the right decisions in life.
The term `freedom' is often associated with the notion of living free of restraint and having an unfettered liberty to engage in rational actions with a sense that that our actions will not be controlled or interfered with. Given the above definition of freedom and the principles of positive and negative freedom, this essay shall seek to demonstrate that while they do not experience freedom fully, the proles are more free than Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four. This essay shall also discuss the reasons why we consider freedom to be important with a particular focus on our assumptions of human nature and its components.
The “pains of imprisonment” can be divided into five main conditions that attack the inmate’s personality and his feeling of self-worth. The deprivations are as follows: The deprivation of liberty, of goods and services, of heterosexual relationships, autonomy and of security.
In the center Simone de Beauvoir’s understanding of freedom is the understanding that people cannot achieve an authentic existence if they do not help others achieve and understand freedom. For her a person lives in a word full of other people and he or she cannot live his or her life if he/she does not respect the freedom of others. For De Beauvoir freedom is an ambiguity. The ambiguity is the fact that people make their own choices and they them self judge if they are right or wrong. A person can make a decision he thinks is right in the moment but that decision can later on look wrong.
Simone de Beauvoir’s argument in part three section five, titled “Ambiguity” rejects Albert Camus’s nihilism and makes a clear distinction between the concepts of absurdity and ambiguity. De Beauvoir states that ambiguity cannot be confused with absurdity, and that declaring existence absurd is the same as saying that existence can never have meaning. If existence is absurd, the rationalization of the real world leaves no room for ethics. Saying that existence is ambiguous means that the meaning of existence is never fixed. There is no single “meaning” of existence, and individual will have their own meaning. In her argument, de Beauvoir claims, “So is it with any activity; failure and success are two aspects of reality which at the start are not perceptible”. In other words, the outcome of an action is ambiguous at the start. De Beauvoir believes that the main problem of human existence lays in the fact that transcendence has to be found by itself, while at the same time it is never able to fulfill itself. Therefore, freedom is achieved by man by the simple fact that he pursues it. Something can not attempt to fulfill itself by any means that would ruin its meaning.
Although there are numerous definitions as to what freedom mean based upon individual perspectives. Freedom can be defined as _________________ People might be limited by some constraint so freewill may not be completely "free" but the thoughts about possibilities are unlimited and the way in which people get involved in such possibilities is not an aspect that can limit freewill. In Sartre essay titled Existentialism and Human emotion, he points out that from the moment we are brought into this world, we take on the role of responsibility for all of our actions. It makes me think about what the term “free” truly refers when people use it. There aren’t any external benefits that humans can base the way we live. Regardless of whether someone gives you a choice or not, you still have the ability to choose. That is the one and only innate ability any one person possesses. Sartre says, we must be accountable for our actions because it’s ours and no one else’s. I doubt that God would want us to choose to take responsibility over one action over another because we think it’s in our nature to do so. If life was all about handing over our responsibilities to God or to another, wouldn’t you think we would be a less motivated society, without intentions to