In this paper, I will explain the attitudes of the sub-man, serious man, nihilist, adventurer, and passionate person as explained by Simone De Beauvoir. I will show how freedom is neglected in each attitude due to inconsistency and the fear of facing reality. In De Beauvoir's book "The Ethics of Ambiguity", I will explain the term "Ethics is the triumph of freedom over facticity". I will then link the term with characters in the movie "Once Were Warriors". I will also do the same for Aristotle and Plato by describing how happiness and virtues are in comparison with De Beauvoir's definition of ethics and freedom. .
In her book, De Beauvoir explains facticity as a structure of what is given in ones life. She says in terms of the sub-man, which I will explain later, that he is denying the world as a whole. "The sub-man feels only the facticity of his existence"(44 Ethics). De Beauvoir explains how the facticity we live in is a world that we were born into. It already contains rules and laws. She also says that facticity is something that we must triumph over in order to be happy and free.
De Beauvoir discusses the term freedom. She says that freedom involves existing. And again, in terms of the sub-man, he is afraid of existing.
"Thus fundamental as a mans fear in the face of existence .
maybe, though he as chosen from his earliest years to deny .
his presence in the world, he cannot keep himself from .
existing, he cannot efface the agonizing evidence of his .
freedom."(45 Ethics).
De Beauvoir says that freedom is destined for everyone, whether they chose it or not. .
In her quote "ethics is the triumph of freedom over facticity"(44), De Beauvoir exactly says that when one gains moral principals, they in turn triumph over facticity.
Ethics are principals that you create on your own. When one gains these principals after living a life that he or she has been brought up into (facticity), the life where they learned the concept of conforming in a hidden cast system, they become free.
