Explaining complex ideas with clarity, William Penne contrasts Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist philosophy to that of Jean-Paul Sartre. Though Sartre is more recognized as an existentialist thinker, Penne explains why Beauvoir’s existentialist perspective is more compassionate, consistent, and optimistic. Penne contrasts the radical freedom in Sartre’s conception—in which the Other is a threat to one’s freedom—to Beauvoir’s recognition that we are free only by virtue of our respect for the Other’s equal claims to create meaning, live freely, and flourish
