Albert Camus

Camus, Albert (1913-1960), French-Algerian novelist, essayist, dramatist, and journalist, a Nobel laureate whose concepts of the absurd and of human revolt address and suggest solutions to the problem of meaninglessness in modern human life.

Existentialism

Existentialism Definition - What is Existentialism philosophy? There is a wide variety of philosophical ideologies that make up existentialism so there is not a universal existentialism definition. It is necessary to remain open and realize that most existentialists have a different view and form.

Existentialism

Existentialism is a 20th century philosophy concerned with human existence, finding self, and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.

Existentialism then stresses that a person’s judgment is the determining factor for what is to be believed rather than by religious or secular (wordly rather than religious) world values.

Absurdism Absurdism -- philosophy based on

the belief that man exists in an irrational and meaningless universe and in which man’s life has no meaning outside his own existence.

(absurd = ridiculously unreasonable, irrational, meaningless)

Absurd for Camus The state of condition in which man exists in an irrational and meaningless universe and that his search for order brings him into conflict with his universe.

Existentialism - Continued The existentialist has taken the basic questions of how we know we exist and given what amounts to revolutionary answers.

Existentialism - Continued 1) Is there a purpose to

life? No. We live for the

moment 2) Is there an afterlife? No. Our being here on

Earth, is all there is. 3) Is there anything to

give my faith to? No. Other than myself, I

can trust no one else to guide or help me.

4) Is time relevant? No. We live now and we have no connection to what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future. 5) Is thought something which connects us to others? No. Thought is about the moment. It is a part of the moment but it does not distinguish this moment from the next.

Existentialism - Continued As the existentialists ruled out these features of living and focused on the moment, they were liberated to understand their personal strengths and freedoms.

The ultimate personal freedom is the choice pondered by Hamlet: Is it better to live in an untidy world full of suffering and a “sea of trouble” or to commit suicide and end our suffering and our dreams. Hamlet ponders the role our conscience plays in the question, but the existentialist does not give our morality a part in the decision.

Albert Camus, A Quote "You will never be happy if you

continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.“

Camus was influenced by a diverse collection of foreign authors and philosophies in the 1930s. The mood of nihilism was high. Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky had remained significant in thought since the turn of the century.

Nihilism Viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs

are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.

Negation of everything, nothing has meaning A doctrine that denies any objective ground of

truth and (especially) moral truths. A doctrine or belief that conditions in the

social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility.

Life - Part 1

Born in Algeria, to a French father and a Spanish mother. Algeria – Google Earth

Father was killed in 1914, beginning of WW I Raised in poverty by grandmother and

mother, an illiterate charwoman. Tuberculosis ended his studies at the

University of Algiers, forcing him also to abandon soccer and to curtail his life in the theater as a playwright, director, and actor.

Life - Part 2 Became interested in politics, was

briefly a member of the Communist Party, and in the 1930s began a career in journalism.

Revealed the misery of the Arab population in Algeria – this led to dismissal from his newspaper job

In 1940 went to Paris to work for the newspaper Paris-Soir.

Began writing for the underground newspaper Combat in 1943

Life, part 3 Associated with the

group of writers surrounding French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre

In 1957 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“…for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.”

Life, part 4 Deeply troubled during his last

years by the Algerian war for independence (1954-1962), he immersed himself in the theater and in work on an autobiographical novel

About to be named director of a national theater at the time of his death in an automobile accident.

Personal experience and acting on one's own convictions are essential in arriving at the truth.

Thus, the understanding of a situation by someone involved in that situation is superior to that of a detached, objective observer.

Exisistentialism: Subjectivity

Exististentialism: Choice & Commitment

Humanity's primary distinction is the freedom to choose.

Human beings do not have a fixed nature, or essence, as other animals and plants do; each human being makes choices that create his or her own nature.

World Views & Approach to Life

Theism Deism Naturalism Nihilism Existentialism Absurdism

•Determinist •Hedonist •Idealist •Pragmatist •Pessimist •Materialist