Force of Circumstances Vol. III (1963) as translated by Richard Howard (1968) - Excerpt online http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/1963/interview.htm
General sources
Context: It was said that I refused to grant any value to the maternal instinct and to love. This was not so. I simply asked that women should experience them truthfully and freely, whereas they often use them as excuses and take refuge in them, only to find themselves imprisoned in that refuge when those emotions have dried up in their hearts. I was accused of preaching sexual promiscuity; but at no point did I ever advise anyone to sleep with just anyone at just any time; my opinion on this subject is that all choices, agreements and refusals should be made independently of institutions, conventions and motives of self-aggrandizement; if the reasons for it are not of the same order as the act itself, then the only result can be lies, distortions and mutilations.
“So-called instincts are instructive, Felix. They point to survival values.”
Source: Beyond This Horizon (1948; originally serialized in 1942), Chapter 7, “Burn him down at once—”, p. 76
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988Related quotes
“Morals: They’re nothing but a coded survival instinct!”
Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 3, p. 175
“We are therefore driven by both basic survival instincts and rational thought.”
Source: Emotional amoral egoism (2008), p.15
Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 36
Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Social Ideal, p. 161
“It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.”
From the lecture Life in the Universe http://hawking.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65 (1996)
“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”
As quoted in Duh! : The Stupid History of the Human Race (2000) by Bob Fenster, p. 208
2000s and attributed from posthumous publications
The survival instinct tends to prolong life. The fundamental drive tends to inform itself about the universe.
Advice to Clever Children (1981)