hierarchy between body and soul which permits of considering as
negligible the part of the self which cannot be saved." ²⁵ The French
original here uses soi-même -- self, or one's self. However, the second
appearance of the word "self" in the English edition derives from a French
reflexive form of the verb faire (to make or do), and not from the pronoun
soi-même. ²⁶ The original sentence contains four reflexives, though the
English translation renders two of them directly through the use of "self"
or "oneself": "It has been a matter of eliminating the ambiguity by making
oneself pure inwardness or pure extemality, by escaping from the sensible
world or by being engulfed in it, by yielding to eternity or enclosing
oneself in the pure moment." ²⁷ The French original reads: "il s'agissait de
supprimer l'ambiguité en se faisant pure intériorité ou pure extériorité, en
s'évadant du monde sensible ou en' s'y engloutissant, en accédant à
l'éternité ou en s'enfermant dans l'instant pur." ²⁸

Through the linguistic-grammatical structure of the French statements,
the nature of "self" (whether or not it is substantive) is left ambiguous. In
place of the "thinghood" of the self we find something closer to an activity.
Following early Husserl and the Sartre who defended Husserl against
Husserl, we might describe it this way: consciousness, the for-itself, is an
unfolding intentional activity, and when a "self" forms out of this, as it
becomes "reflective" and "reflexive" on itself, the result is a fixed structure
(though very impermanently) which we call the self and conceptualize as
a thing. In fact, Sartre and Beauvoir themselves conceptualize it this way.
However, it would be more accurate to what early Husserl, Sartre, and
Beauvoir asserted about the self to say that consciousness "selfs" itself,
rather than to say that a "self" forms. This folding back upon itself is an
internal action of consciousness, and the designation of the product of
this activity into the English term "self" -- a noun term which at least
"looks like" or sounds like a thing -- is misleading. The usage of the
nominal form "self" would quite mistakenly "eliminate the ambiguity" (to
use Beauvoir's phrase above) of the activity of consciousness, which, at
some points but not at others, "selfs" itself a "self," that is, selfs it-
self -- forms, creates, fashions, crafts itself (a "self").

In what follows, I look at aspects of Simone de Beauvoir's work that
make use of these distinctions. I begin by examining her philosophical
essays to investigate her allegiance to Sartrean existentialism, as well as
her departures from it. It was by these departures that she formed a
Beauvoirian theory that was a profound addition to earlier feminist
theory. Then I will continue by examining her own autobiographical
writings from this unique Beauvoirian Theory. My purpose is to find the
self that she crafts for her readers and for herself.

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