Many scholars no longer consider the works of Simone de Beauvoir a rehash of her more rigorous philosopher-lover, Jean-Paul Sartre, to judge from the articles in this special issue of the journal of feminist philosophy. First presented at two international conferences in 1998, the pieces indicate a "shifting paradigm" since 1985, when Hypatia last published a Beauvoir issue, notes Margaret A. Simons, who edited both volumes. The earlier articles assumed a Sartrean philosophical foundation for Beauvoir's The Second Sex, a thesis that has been "radically challenged by discoveries based on posthumous texts," writes Ms. Simons, a philosopher at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

In addition, contemporary scholars are expanding what counts as philosophical discourse by reading Beauvoir's life as well as her writing. While a previous generation of feminists condemned The Second Sex as male-centered, Karen Vintges calls it an "exemplar" of contemporary feminist thinking. Through the "personal art of living," Beauvoir lays out a third path between the press of equality and an identity-based politics that stresses women's difference. "She advocated the creation of identity as a project of positive moral commitment, whereas at the same time she criticized universal moral truth," writes Ms. Vintges, an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam. In another article, Gail E. Linsenbard, as assistant professor at New York University, finds in Beauvoir arguments about universal human rights that converge with recent perspectives by African philosophers. "One particularly encouraging trend," concludes Ms. Simons, "is the readiness of the community of Beauvoir scholars to engage critically and fully with one another."