In her lecture “In Defense of Sartre’s ‘Woman on a Date’” on July 9th at 6:15 p.m. in HS 1009, philosopher Ellie Anderson will offer a feminist reading of one of the examples of “bad faith” that Jean-Paul Sartre develops in "Being and Nothingness": a woman goes out with a man for the first time and refuses to recognize his sexual overtures as such. In contrast to feminists like Michèle Le Dœuff which argue that Sartre’s example evinces “the classic authoritarianism of a man”, Anderson holds that this example offers a rich phenomenological account of erotic ambivalence, i.e. the mixed feelings that accompany most sexual encounters, even when consensual and mutually desired.
Ellie Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She works on philosophies of selfhood, love, and sex, and specializes in in continental European philosophy - especially phenomenology, existentialism, and poststructuralism - and feminist philosophy. She co-hosts the “Overthink” podcast and YouTube channel. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Slate, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and more.
The lecture will be held in English. There is time for questions in a discussion round after. The entry is free.