Rejecting the Dream of Purity: Sonia Kruks, Simone De Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity. Oxford University Press, 2012

This well-researched and welcome work on Simone de Beauvoir’s ethical theory continues the contemporary fresh investigations into Beauvoir’s work considered independently of Sartre’s oeuvre, that is, as a philosophical system in its own right. Too often attention to Beauvoir’s work has been distracted by obsession with her personal life and situation. From an existentialist standpoint, these are not irrelevant in the development of her work, but this emphasis has often worked to prevent a more in-depth analysis of the details of the everdeveloping philosophy that encompassed her work and life

Kruks’ project is divided thoughtfully into chapters which reflect important points of intersection between Beauvoir’s ethical theory and continuing philosophical and political concerns. Kruks locates Beauvoir’s politics in a number of relevant contexts, including phenomenology, embodiment, post-war politics, and post-war and contemporary feminism. This last includes, importantly, intra-feminist dialogues of privilege, particularly with regard to race.

Overall, Kruks’ study displays a threefold structure: she presents the historical, contextualised development of Beauvoir’s theory, she offers a critical analysis, and, in conjunction with the latter, offers an interpretation and application of it in light of one or more contemporary ethical dilemmas. This approach ensures the reader understands Beauvoir’s theory in multiple applicable contexts: that is to say, this is not merely a historical study of the genesis of Beauvoir’s ethical thought but also a practical revival of Beauvoir’s theory. Kruks breathes new life into Beauvoir’s work against the background of contemporary politics and philosophy—an approach of which surely Beauvoir, with her intense practical ethical focus, would approve.