Beauvoir, Irigaray, and the Search for an Embodied Universal

This paper aims to examine the relationship between Hegel’s philosophy (and figure) and feminist thought. In particular, it seeks to reflect on the relationship between the critique of universalism and so-called “identity politics.” Through critical and comparative analysis of thinkers such as Irigaray and McKinnon, we will attempt to demonstrate the relevance and effectiveness of de Beauvoir’s approach. De Beauvoir, seemingly superseded by the philosophy of difference, actually anticipates the intersectional perspective and the integration between the particular and the universal. In the intertwining of philosophical speculation and autobiographical writing, she thus paves the way for the possibility of an embodied universal.