CFP: "De Beauvoir's Philosophy," Panel Sponsored by Simone de Beauvoir Society, Annual Meeting, EPTC, University of British Columbia, June 3-5, 2008.

The philosophic relevance of Beauvoir's work has been overshadowed by her relationship with Sartre, her literary imagination, her lack of a complete coherent philosophic system and her denial of her own philosophic abilities. However, many scholars have worked diligently to make room for her in the philosophical canon as a crucial figure of existentialism and phenomenology. At her centennial, Beauvoir has been realized as a philosopher in her own right. Her ethical, political, phenomenological, and existential import can no longer be overlooked as her thinking serves to provide us with an understanding of and possible solutions for contemporary problems associated with identity, embodiment, alterity and intersubjectivity. These fundamental philosophic questions have become more and more problematic during the course of the 20th century as philosophers of all movements, but especially post-structuralists, have questioned, and sometimes even dismissed, such categories or concepts. These, however, lie at the heart of ethical and political theorizing. Their problematization or dismissal thus further makes ethics and politics difficult, if not altogether impossible. We believe that Beauvoir's existential/phenomenological approach to such fundamental concepts can help us re-think ethical and political problems that still plague us today. Analyzing how Beauvoir questioned such categories all the while reconstructing them around such more fundamental ideas as that of ambiguity can potentially lead us to a more fruitful approach to ethical and political thought. We thus think that it is very timely to re-examine Beauvoir's philosophy and that it is highly pertinent and relevant to do so today. Our panel will be a celebration of the contemporary relevance of Beauvoir's philosophy. We are planning to have 7 papers. Some papers will be by invitation but we are also welcoming paper submissions from EPTC members. French submissions welcomed! If you are interested in presenting a paper on the contemporary import of Beauvoir, please email Christine Daigle or Christy Landry as soon as possible. For further information, see the CFP here: http://simonedebeauvoir.free.fr/colloques/philo.html.