Ambiguity, Freedom, and Civil Disobedience: A Beauvoirian Account of Civil Disobedience Open Access
Stoneman, Betty Jean (Fall 2022)
Abstract
A perennial problem in social and political theory is how to navigate between the conflicting aims of protecting individual liberties while at the same time establishing an obligation to the political community. It is the problem of the individual versus the community. This problem becomes even more important when considering the practice of political disobedience. For this dissertation, I explore how Simone de Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity can be applied to concrete cases of political disobedience and as such navigate in the ambiguity between the extremes of the individual versus the community. I defend a conception of freedom, for Beauvoir, as tripartite and as a social ontology; as ontological, situational, and relational. I define freedom for her as a continuous, interactive and collective process of creating meaning and value based on the ability to choose from the most expansive array of potential projects to either reject or take up and carry forward. One’s projects can either 1) be forced onto others, 2) fall uselessly into oblivion, or 3) be taken up and furthered through the free acts of others. Only the third option allows for the continuity of freedom. I argue that if we understand freedom for Beauvoir as tripartite, then we can use her ethics to demarcate justified acts of political disobedience from unjustified acts. Justified acts are ones that strive to promote freedom in principle, as opposed to pseudo freedom. Understood in this way, only acts which promote the furtherance of freedom as a relational practice would be justified. I conclude by applying a Beauvoirian theory of civil disobedience to concrete case studies such as taking down a confederate flag and refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The aim of this work is to provide a theory that allows for reconstructive acts of disobedience without giving cover for regressive acts.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Chapter One – Defining Civil Disobedience through the Concept of Fidelity to Law
I. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………... 10
II. Rawls and Civil Disobedience: Civility, Fidelity to Law, and Obligation to the Legitimate State ………………………………………………………………………………………………... 12
III. Rawls’s Critics ……………………………………………………………………………………………... 15
IV. Fidelity to Law: King on the Legitimacy of the State and Political Obligation ……. 19
V. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………….… 32
Chapter Two – Brownlee’s Conscientious Convictions and Civil Disobedience in Individual vs Communal Social Ontologies
I. Introduction: The Necessity of a Normative Principle that Establishes Individual Obligations to the Political Community ……………………………………………………………..... 34
II. Case of Kim Davis ……………………………………………………………………………………….…. 39
III. Brownlee’s Position Applied to Davis’s Case ………………………………………………...… 40
IV. The Principle of Humanism and First-Order vs Second-Order Moral Justification ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49
V. The Paradox of Toleration and Freedom of Expression ……………………………………. 57
VI. Content of Beliefs and One’s Scope of Moral and Political Consideration ………..... 67
VII. Content of Beliefs and Structural Injustice …………………………………………………..... 75
VIII. Acts of Civil Disobedience in Context: Two Interrelated Further Points ………… 79
IX. Conclusion: Individual vs Relational Social Ontologies ………………………………….... 90
Chapter Three – Beauvoirian Tripartite Freedom: Morality and Political Action as a Continuous, Interactive and Collective Activity
I. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………... 95
II. Beauvoirian Tripartite Freedom as a Relational Social Ontology: Ontological, Situational, and Relational ……………………………………………………………………………….... 97
III. Three Aspects of Beauvoirian Relational Freedom ……………………………………..… 109
IV. In Defense of a Tripartite Conception of Beauvoirian Freedom …………………...…. 117
V. Beauvoir, Freedom in Principle, the Paradox of Toleration, and Rights ……………. 126
VI. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 140
Chapter Four – A Beauvoirian Theory of Democratic Civil Disobedience
I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………….... 143
II. How Does a Beauvoirian Theory of Freedom Meet the Three Proposed Criteria? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..144
III. Deliberative Democracy and Freedom ……………………………………………………….... 148
IV. Beauvoirian Freedom and Deliberative Democracy …………………………………….... 153
V. A Beauvoirian Theory of Democratic Civil Disobedience ……………………………..…. 161
VI. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 173
Chapter Five – A Beauvoirian Theory of Democratic Civil Disobedience Applied to Concrete Cases
I. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………....… 175
II. Beauvoirian Freedom and the Lack of Preestablished Justificatory Precepts ….... 176
III. Taking Down a Confederate Flag ……………………………………………………………….... 180
IV. Refusing to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses ……………………………………………... 183
V. Beauvoirian Freedom: Expanding the Scope of Moral Consideration for Acts of Civil Disobedience for Nonhuman Animals………………………………………………………………..185
VI. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 195
Conclusion – Returning to Washington, DC January 6, 2021 ………………………………………….. 198
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 202
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