doing my disso and re-reading ethics of ambiguity

 “Man must not attempt to dispel the ambiguity of his being but, on the contrary, accept the task of realizing it.”

Upon tons of reading for my dissertation - I just realise how philosophically similar Beauvoir's ethics of ambiguity with one research method that I aim to explore - System Dynamics.

It is a slightly more complex version of 'you-can-be-anything-you-want'. But it is not said in encouragement, it is simply stating a fact. Existentialism sits at the belief that men are to determine their own essences behind their existences. You can be anything, meaning, you are actually immersed by such freedom - almost incomprehensible indefinite future events and actions lay upon you. I think if you were to ask me what my life philosophies were, this would be the second. In navigating this ambiguity. In realising there are yet so many things we do not know we will do. Truly, you cannot be sure. It's almost like Nick Drake's singing One of These Things First - also one of my all-time favourite songs by now. You could be a cook, a poet, a sailor - you could be one of these things first.

“The notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity. To declare that existence is absurd is to deny that it can ever be given a meaning; so to say it is ambiguous is to assert that it's meaning is never fixed, that it must be constantly won. Absurdity challenges every ethics; but also the finished rationalization of the real would leave no room for ethics; it is because man's condition is ambiguous that he seeks, through failure & outrageousness, to save his existence.”

It must be constantly won.

Well, isn't it tiring then, you'd need an anchor, wouldn't you -- you said.

Beauvoir wouldn't agree, she thought it'd mean denying your own freedom.

Me? I'd say, an anchor is a convenience, that is why people assert their own beliefs, be it in a form of religion, moral compass - and wait, philosophy is a kind of anchor too. So what if this is my anchor?

So your anchor needs to be constantly won every day? you asked. I can sense your scepticism - I don't blame you.

You can sweep it under the rug. Of course, you can act like you are a solid object walking on a straight corridor with a solid moral compass that always tells you what to do in any given situation even the unforeseen ones.

I only choose to recognise that the corridor may not exist.

To me, realising it is the only way to live.