A 19th-century German economist, sociologist, and philosopher best known for his theory of class struggle and its profound impact on subsequent politics across the globe. While existentialism has close affinities with Marxism, de Beauvoir sees Marxism as unable to commit to considering people free, because it considers revolution a necessary historical goal and action valuable only insofar as it advances the political cause.
Marx Quotes in The Ethics of Ambiguity
The The Ethics of Ambiguity quotes below are all either spoken by Marx or refer to Marx. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1
Quotes
We think that the meaning of the situation does not impose itself on the consciousness of a passive subject, that it surges up only by the disclosure which a free subject effects in his project.
Related Characters:
Simone de Beauvoir (speaker), Marx
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Marx Character Timeline in The Ethics of Ambiguity
The timeline below shows where the character Marx appears in The Ethics of Ambiguity. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 3: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Section 2: Freedom and Liberation
...the harmonious development of the world,” but rather develops the world through disharmony and rupture. Marx understood this (which is why the class struggle is primarily a struggle against class oppression...
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Part 3: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity, Section 4: The Present and the Future
Even Hegel and Marx were skeptical of letting themselves conceive the future as static, and de Beauvoir insists that...
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