Skye Cleary
2022-08-25
Love & Relationships

Skye Cleary || Simone De Beauvoir and the Quest for Authentic Living

Today we welcome philosopher Skye Cleary. She is a lecturer at Columbia University and the City College of New York. Skye is the author of Existentialism and Romantic Love and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Aeon, Business Insider, TED-Ed, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, among other outlets.

In 2021, she was a MacDowell Fellow and In 2017, she won the New Philosopher Writers’ Award. Her latest book is called How to Be Authentic. 

In this episode, I talk to Skye Cleary about Simone de Beauvoir’s life and how it has informed her existentialist philosophy. As a feminist during the forties, Simone was passionate about freedom of choice. It’s not a surprise then that her definition of authenticity also revolves around self-determination. Authenticity is not about finding a true self, but rather a process of creating who we want to be. We also touch on the topics of gender, power, social justice, narcissism, and fulfillment.

Website: skyecleary.com

Twitter: @Skye_Cleary

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About the guest

Skye Cleary

Podcast Guest

Skye C. Cleary is an Australian-born philosopher and author whose work focuses on existentialism, authenticity, and the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir. She is a lecturer at Columbia University and the author of books including How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment and Existentialism and Romantic Love.

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