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Simone de Beauvoir on Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:06 am
by Juliet
I was surprised to find this reference to Hegel's dialectic in Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex:
"Certain passages where Hegel's dialectic describes the relationship of master to slave would apply far better to the relationship of man to woman."
(The Second Sex, Borde/Malovany-Chevallier translation, p. 74)
I'm not sure how to interpret this - at first I laughed because it seems kind of ironic, but what does it say about her position vis-a-vis Hegel - positive or negative? It could be that SdB approves of Hegel's analysis of master and slave and sees it as also applicable to man and woman... or maybe she's just making a joke. I'm not sure.
I also noticed there are many references to Hegel throughout the text.