Paula Lorelle
Institut Catholique de Paris (paulalorelle@hotmail.com; ORCID : 0000-0002-0376- 7712).
Non-recognition in Beauvoir: Consciousness and the Body for-the-other
Abstract: This article examines Simone de Beauvoir’s critical reworking of the theory of recognition and its implications for her conceptions of consciousness and the lived body. Beauvoir develops a theory of non-recognition that exposes the structural dynamics of relations of oppression and domination. From an existential and phenomenological perspective, she interrogates the lived and embodied experience of individuals who are denied social recognition as autonomous subjects – as beings for-themselves – and who are thereby relegated to a condition of dependence, existing as consciousnesses and bodies for-the-other. The article thus explores Beauvoir’s concepts of consciousness and lived body through the lens of their non-recognition, raising a phenomenological and social question: how do subjects experience their bodies when they are not recognized by others as lived bodies?
Keywords: Beauvoir; Recognition; Oppression; Consciousness; Lived Body.