AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Authentic subjectivity plays a central role in Simone de Beauvoir’s arguments in both The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and The Second Sex (1949). In this paper, I unpack what it means to be an authentic subject. Beauvoir argues that freedom is the ultimate value, which places great responsibility on us to recognise and work towards our own freedom and that of others. Furthermore, to be authentic one must recognise, rather than deny, our ambiguous existence as both transcendent beings who construct and pursue ends freely, and immanent beings whose existence relies on the conditions of life being met consistently.

Patriarchal society relegates women (and others) to the immanent sphere, while simultaneously devaluing that sphere. This is evident in the widespread destruction of our ecosystems and the continued devaluing of reproductive and care labour. Implicit in Beauvoir’s argument, I suggest, is the notion that to be an authentic subject one must challenge the dominant system of values that devalues and exploits the immanent sphere. I extend Beauvoir’s work to argue for the importance of women and other oppressed people working together to create an alternative value system that authentically recognises the ambiguity of existence, and moreover, the value of the immanent.