A Comparative Analysis of Hegel’s and Beauvoir’s Relational Model of Self

Abstract

Feminist engagement with Hegel's philosophy has taken two main approaches: appropriating Hegelian insights selectively to serve feminist purposes, as exemplified by Simone de Beauvoir, and rejecting Hegel's work as incompatible with feminist philosophy, as seen in Luce Irigaray's deconstruction of Hegel's claim to universality. These approaches have opened interpretive possibilities in Hegel's scholarship, particularly by focusing on passages within Hegel's texts and by analyzing Hegel's phenomenology and logic as modes of philosophical inquiry.1 Keeping this in mind, this research paper aims to reinterpret and compare the relational model of selfhood expounded by Hegel and Simone de Beauvoir. This paper is divided into three sections: (a.) introduction, (b.) analysis, and (c.) conclusion. The analysis covers the largest portion of this paper, it is divided into two sections (i.) this section begins with a discussion on Hege’s Phenomenology of Spirit and traces the development of consciousness to the Absolute. Further, it discusses his master-slave dialectic and its importance in gaining the Absolute knowledge. (ii.) this section discusses the importance of this dialectic in Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex and how using this dialectic she has developed her argument on the historical and societal position of the “Other” (women).