The 6 Levels of Living a Meaningful Life

Soul Gum

The episode explores Simone de Beauvoir's framework for finding meaning through six distinct existential attitudes. Victoria Hutchins guides

Key takeaways

• Simone de Beauvoir's 1947 work 'The Ethics of Ambiguity' outlines six levels of existence based on attitudes toward freedom.
• The 'subman' represents a state of passivity where individuals follow algorithms and trends rather than personal values.

Main topics

• Existentialism
• Simone de Beauvoir

Notable quotes

We are meaning-seeking creatures in a universe that is silent on meaning.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a philosophical mirror, encouraging listeners to

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) If you're looking for an answer on how to live a meaningful life, you can find one. Religion can give you an answer. Self-help books can give you an answer. Your family might really want to give you an answer. Or maybe they just want you to stop thinking about this sort of thing and start saving for a house. But existentialist philosophy won't give you an answer. The starting point for most existentialist thought is this. We are meaning-seeking creatures in a universe that is silent on meaning. So... What do we do? The six levels of living a meaningful life according to 20th century French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Let's talk about it. Welcome back to Soul Gum, the self-development podcast with philosophical, psychological, and literary flair. I'm your host Victoria Hutchins. My goal is to give your soul something to chew on and today we are talking about how to live a meaningful life. Light work, light work. Maybe you clicked on this episode because you are questioning some of the ideas you've inherited about what makes a life meaningful from your religion or your culture or the internet or your family. You know what you've been told is supposed to matter, but you don't know if it actually matters to you. Maybe you don't think much on a day-to-day basis about what makes a meaningful life, but every now and then you like have a coffee too late in the day and then you find yourself lying awake at 2 a.m. like, wait a minute, we're born, we flail our way through adolescence, we send emails for 50 years, everyone we love dies, and then we die too. Speaker 1 (1:47) Or maybe you are one of those people where you are constantly thinking about what it means to live life well and whether you are living yours right. Maybe you struggle with making even tiny decisions because you are hyper aware of how every choice costs you what you don't choose. Do I spend this weekend working on the creative project I want to build or do I go to the pool with my friends? Because isn't that what life's about? Do I spend Christmas with my family or do I take the trip to Japan that I've wanted to take for 10 years? Do I stay in a relationship with a person that I love but have doubts about or blow up my whole life because there could be something better. Do I stay home from this birthday dinner I don't want to go to or go even though I'm tired because one day I and everyone I love will be dead. Speaker 1 (2:33) I'm that one. If any of that sounds like you, you're in exactly the right place and I made this episode for you. In today's episode, we will be diving into the six levels of living a meaningful life according to 20th century French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Before we dive in, I need you to know that Simone de Beauvoir was not up in the ethics of ambiguity like, hey guys. It's me, famous philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, and today I'm going to talk about the six levels of living a meaningful life. I wish philosophers were more pithy with it. A lot more people would read philosophy, but no. Philosophers mostly speak using words that they made up or other philosophers made up. But what Simone de Beauvoir did write about in her 1947 work, The Ethics of Ambiguity, was six distinct attitudes that people take towards the unmitigated freedom that existentialists see as the core problem of humanity. So today we are going to talk about those attitudes from least to most evolved as levels for living a meaningful life. You might see yourself in some of these levels. You might see people you know in some of these levels. But what you will not find is instructions for how to live your life. This episode is not going to tell you whether you should move to New York, whether you should have kids, if you should write the book, if you should quit your job. The existentialist whole thing is that you have to figure that out yourself. But what I hope this episode will do is get you thinking on which facets of your life you have chosen because you genuinely love them and which ones you have chosen passively because you are too afraid of the freedom and responsibility and risk that would come with going after what you actually want. Also if you're new here, hi! It's so nice to meet you. I am Victoria. I am a writer. My debut poetry collection, Make Believe, is out now. I am a content creator at The Daily Victorian on TikTok and Instagram. I'm the host of this podcast, obviously, and I'm so glad you're here. If it's your first time here, leave a comment. Tell me where you're listening from. Tell me your name. Tell me a little something about you. And if you're not new here, hi. Are you excited for our weekly meeting about the void? It's good to see you. I'm glad you're here. I want to hear from you too. You already know. My ass loves a comment. Talk to me. Let's dive in. Six levels of living a meaningful life according to Simone de Beauvoir, starting at the bottom. Simone de Beauvoir calls people who are living their life in what she thinks the least meaningful way, submen. Which... by the way, is an evil thing to call anyone. That's a little evil of you, Simone. She says, the essence of existence is to cast oneself into the world. Sub-men are those who restrain this original movement. they won't do it. Submen are the NPCs of the world, the non-player characters in a video game. They move through the world on autopilot. They follow whatever scripts, opinions, trends have been handed to them that day instead of thinking for themselves. Simone de Beauvoir says they have an apathy that manifests a fundamental fear in the face of existence. Basically, submen are the id gaffers. And not only do they not gaff, They think it's cringe to gaffe. This is the person who would rather sit in their room and scroll than endure the mortification of putting themselves out there in any way. I think one of the modern sub-men's catchphrases would be, it's not worth it. It's not worth it to be new at something. It's not worth it to try out for the team. It's not worth it to apply for the job. It's not worth it to express yourself creatively. It's not that the sub-men does nothing, though. Simone de Beauvoir says his acts are never positive choices, only flights. He can't prevent himself from being a presence in the world, but he maintains this presence on the plane of bare facticity. She's saying you can't not do anything with your life because even not doing anything is doing something. Not choosing is choosing. But every choice a subman makes is made either passively or reactively. Never affirmatively. Their taste is whatever the algorithm has been feeding them. Their opinions are whatever everyone else in the comment section seems to agree with. Or whatever they think the mainstream doesn't agree with. But they're never really theirs. The subman never asks themselves, what do I believe in? What do I want? What kind of person do I want to be? What do I want to contribute to the world? They just let the world happen to them. They spend their time doing whatever is easiest and most immediately available to them. So in 1947, this could have been gambling. It could have been listening to the radio. It could have been talking shit. Some things never change. Today, it might be talking shit. It could be scrolling. It could be gaming. And if you challenge anything about the way they're living their life, the subman will respond with another one of their catchphrases. It's not that deep. Nothing. is that deep to the subman. Nothing is worth sticking their neck out. Simone de Beauvoir says that submen are typically highly susceptible to other people's opinions and they tend to change their opinions to match the room. If you haven't done the work of deciding what you think, whatever comment has the most likes, is gonna seem pretty convincing. One thing that strikes me as very sub-man in the modern digital age are all the videos about what cool girls are