Life and Sexual Difference in Hegel and Beauvoir

I argue that Simone de Beauvoir's chapter "Biological Data," from The Second Sex, is grounded in her reading of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature. This reading reveals original formulations of her understanding of the concept of life, the relation of the individual organism to the species, and the supposed necessity of heterosexual reproduction. Beauvoir's strategic engagement with Hegel on the themes of organic life and the rational division of the sexes deepens our understanding of the complexity of Beauvoir's approach in The Second Sex and opens up radically different possibilities regarding the configuration and metaphysical necessity of human sexuality and reproduction.