albert camus (existentialism)

7/27/2019 Albert Camus (Existentialism)

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Albert Camus

Life and works

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, a small village near the seaport city

of Bonê (present-day Annaba) in the northeast region of French Algeria. He was the second child

of Lucien Auguste Camus, a military veteran and wine-shipping clerk, and of Catherine Marie

Cardona, a house-keeper and part-time factory worker.1

Camus was a writer, he wrote novels, plays, articles, editorials and essays and his first and most

famous novel, The Stranger appeared in 1942. The Myth of Sisyphus which is his most important

contribution to the existentialist philosophy where he developed the central existential theme of

„absurdity‟ was published in 1943.2

His other widely acclaimed plays are The

Misunderstanding , Caligula and The Plague. In 1957 Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel

Prize for Literature, and unfortunately on January 4, 1960 he was killed in an automobile

accident.3

Camus as a Philosopher

Camus himself repeatedly denied that he was a philosopher. Many would comment that although

he studied philosophy for a number of years at the University of Algiers, he was not a

philosopher in any technical or academic sense.4 Camus didn‟t consider himself to be associated

with the existentialist for two reasons. First, He did not want to associate himself with the

militant atheism of Sartre and the fact that he could not accept the traditionalist doctrine of the

existentialists that existence precedes essence.5

However his philosophical point of departure is

the fact of the individual, the personal existence which is very similar with other existentialist

philosophers. Even though Camus does not consider himself as an existential philosopher his

philosophical career was essentially a movement away from nihilism towards humanism.6

Camus also deals with problems defined by existentialism from a perspective which is similar toexistentialist philosophers from Kierkegaard to Sartre.

7In view of the themes which he wrote he

has been commonly mentioned in accounts of existentialism in France though as mentioned

earlier he denied that he was an existentialist.8



The Absurd

Camus is well known for his famous statement which appears in the first line in The Myth of

Sisyphus in which he wrote “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is

suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the question of

philosophy.”9

Before we tackle the issue of suicide which Camus considered as a serious

philosophical problem it is important that we have first to discover its cause in order to know

how Camus was able to arrive at the problem of suicide.

The key concept or the main theme of Camus‟ philosophy is the concept of the absurd. The

concept of the absurd is commonly referred to as an important contribution of Camus in the

existentialist philosophy. The problem of the absurd is basic in the understanding of the

existentialist philosophy of Camus. It was through his works on the absurd that Camus was

known as an existentialist philosopher. He was even described by Sartre, in the obituary he wrote

at the tragic end of a long and sometimes bitter feud between them, as the “Cartesian of the

Absurd.”10

What is the „absurd? In existentialism “absurdity” refers to the meaninglessness of human

existence that derives from its lack of ground or ultimate purpose.11

The absurd refers to the

meaninglessness or the pointlessness of life. As we live in this world we are searching for the

meaning of life but unfortunately we are faced with life‟s meaninglessness.12 We are searching

for meaning of our life and existence in this world but the world does not seem to provide us

with the meaning that we are looking. The absurd indeed refers to our failure to find meaning in

our life and existence. As rational beings we search for a rational meaning of life and existence.

However the world seems to be irrational, cold and silent by not providing man with answers in

his search for meaning. This irrational silence of the world is understood as its failure to satisfy

the longing and needs of man. Absurdity at the bottom is the failure of the world to satisfy our

human demand.

13

Humans have a desire for meaning of life, of the purpose of his existence which the world fails

to supply or satisfy. There is this presupposition that man seeks a meaning in the world and in

human life and history which would ground and support his ideals and values.14

It is natural for

us human being to search for meaning in our life; it is a fact that this meaning in our life gives us



the reason to live life. We search for meaning in our life and this meaning is the foundation and

reason of our everyday existence. We live because we have a reason to do so and this reason is

found in the meaning of our existence.

Camus claims that human existence is absurd, “this absurdity rises out of our attempt to makes

sense of senseless world.”15

Man makes an attempt to find meaning in a meaningless world

giving rise to absurdity. The feeling of the absurd is described as similar to an actor who is put in

a situation or in a particular setting and finds no meaning in it. The divorce between man and his

life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of the absurd.16

The notion of absurdity is

the result of the discovery of a divorce between the world as it is and man‟s conception of the

world as it ought to be.17

When man is divorced from the world he feels being alienated. The

feeling of alienation is similar to the feeling of isolation. Absurdity may refer to the isolation of

man. “… the isolation of man as an evaluative and purposive being in a world that affords no

support to such attitudes that Camus calls the absurdity of the human condition.”18

In seeking purpose we have our ideals and goals “…man desires metaphysical assurance that his

life is part of an intelligible process directed to an ideal goal and that in striving after his personal

ideals he has the backing and support, so to speak, of the universe or of reality as a whole.”19

We

all have our ideals and goals in life that we want to achieve. We all work hard in order to reach

our goal and to make our dreams come true. This goals, dreams and ideals are what we believe

are giving us the meaning of life and existence. We live for this goal and ideals. Together with

this, we also believe that we have the backing and support of the universe and of the reality as a

whole. However despite of our efforts and struggle to attain these things we fail and thus we find

it humanly impossible to attain them. What if the world didn‟t cooperate with us in achieving

them but rather frustrates us in keeping us to believe that we have its support and backing? For

instance, you work hard in order to be a successful teacher but in the end you have failed,

circumstances and events hinder you to achieve your goal and ideals. This is the feeling of

absurdity seeking meaning in a meaningless world. Man endlessly seeks for meaning, however

in the end the world is revealed, to the clear-sighted man, as without any determinate purpose or

meaning. Man achieves and attains a lot of success in life but yet find no meaning and happiness

in it. Man tries to exhaust every means to find meaning in work, society and achievements but

still man finds no meaning in them. Many people have achieved and reached a lot in life in life



but yet they feel meaningless and emptiness in life. The absurdity of our situation is caused by

the gap between our longings and the reality of our condition.20

The feeling of absurdity is

related to the feeling of reaching our longings but unable to do so because of our condition, it is

humanly impossible.21

What shall we do?

As man is confronted with the absurdity of life how is a person supposed to face the absurdity of

life? Is there still a reason to live life when man is faced with the impossibility of finding

meaning in a meaningless world? If life is absurd is it still worth living? The most basic question

that man encounters is how to face the absurdity of life? Given the impossibility to find meaning

in a meaningless world and the absurdity of life what shall man do?

There are three choices in facing the absurdity of life namely to commit suicide, belief in a

transcendent and spiritual being or idea or lastly to face the absurd. He considered the first and

the second solution as a type of evading the problem and are not really solutions. I am going to

deal with each of the choices presented in facing the absurd and discuss Camus‟s own view

regarding each choice. Perhaps Camus is considered as an existentialist philosopher since the

problem of human choice and decision are the themes of his writings.

First, is regarding the choice of physical suicide. Suicide as introduced by Camus in his book The

Myth of Sisyphus considered suicide as the only serious philosophical problem. The choice and

the decision of committing a suicide is indeed a concern for an existentialist philosopher. It is

proper that we dwell much on this choice in order to understand why Camus considered suicide

as a serious philosophical problem. We wonder perhaps if Camus does affirm or accept the

choice of suicide as the solution to the absurd. Certainly not, Camus rejected such choice.

Suicide is not however the action recommended by Camus. Suicide as a solution to the absurd

would be a defeat; it is a denial of the very condition of man‟s existence.22

“In Camus opinion

suicide means surrender to the absurd a capitulation. Human pride and greatness are shown

neither in surrender nor in the sort of escapism indulged in by the existential philosophers...”23

It

is clear that Camus rejects suicide as a choice or solution to the absurd. Though life is face with

absurdity Camus rejects suicide.



Camus rejects suicide as a choice because he believed that we cannot solve the problem of the

absurd by negating its existence.24

He maintained that suicide cannot be regarded as an adequate

response to the experience of absurdity. The reason he gives is that suicide deals with absurdity

simply by suppressing one of the two poles, the human being and the world.25

Suicide is a form

of negating or suppressing one of the two poles. In this case suicide eliminates the problem but it

does not solve it. Suicide is a way of evading the problem and thus a cowardly solution to the

absurd.

Camus holds high esteem and regard of human pride which he sees as in contrast with the

person‟s choice to commit suicide. The choice of suicide is a cowardly choice in facing the

absurdity of life in contrast with the human pride. Suicide is an admission of human incapacity,

and such admission is inconsistent with that human pride to which Camus appeals.26

Camus‟

esteem regarding human pride is consistent with his belief that man should never surrender by

killing himself “killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much and

that it is not worth living for you or that you do not understand it.”27

The next choice is to believe or hope in a transcendent being or idea.

For Camus there is no appeal to the transcendence and he dismisses such as pointless hope.28

“Traditional theological and philosophical standards that give meaning to the life of man are no

longer intellectually available to modern man…”29 Hope is found in an alleged solution to the

absurd which lies beyond knowledge. It may be God or history or reason, but such a solution

similar with suicide does not solve the problem, it eliminates it by arguments for which there is

insufficient evidence.30

He considered such solution as similar to suicide and calls it as

philosophical suicide. The second solution is also considered as evading the problem. By

appealing to a transcendent idea or being man simply escapes the problem of the absurd. This

was considered an escape since such solution does not consider reason. To consider the appeal to

the transcendent is similar to the Kierkegaardian leap of faith, but for Camus there is no suchleap of faith in facing the absurd.



The last choice is to face and live or embrace the absurd. It is this last choice that Camus favors

or suggests. The choice to live with the absurd and to face it is the valid and authentic choice for

Camus.31

Since the absurd in Camus view is an unavoidable, indeed defining, characteristic of

the human condition, the only proper response to it is full, unflinching and courageous

acceptance; life, he says, can “be lived all the better if it has no meaning.”32

He believed that

only by going on living in the face of their own absurdity can human beings achieve their full

stature.33

This is similar to what other existentialists such as Karl Jaspers believed that

“illumination of existence” is achieved when a person recognizes that human existence is

revealed most profoundly in his experience of those “extreme” situations that define the human

condition-conflict, guilt, suffering and death.34

In this sense the absurd helps us to live life to its

fullest. Camus suggests that the only way is to face, accept and embrace the absurd. The absurd

being the only truth, the essence of the human situation, the only proper alternative is to live with

it.35

In our ordinary experience it is the struggle to face the absurd that we gain meaning in life.

The last choice that Camus suggests is the acceptance of the absurd which is to live in spite of it.

“In acknowledging the absurdity of seeking any inherent meaning, but continuing this

search regardless, one can be happy, gradually developing his or her own meaning from the

search alone.”36

Revolt

Revolt is the feeling that accompanies the acceptance of the absurd. It is one of the feelings

that may admit of the absurd. It is the spirit of defiance in the face of the absurd.Revolt

refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the

Absurd.37

More technically and less metaphorically, it is a spirit of opposition against any

perceived unfairness, oppression, or indignity in the human condition.38

Revolt is the

awareness of a crushing fate, but without the resignation that ought to accompany it.39



1 David Simpson, “ Albert Camus” http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/ (Accessed 10 August 2012).2 Philip Stokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers (China: Arcturus Publishing, 2004), 155.3 Thomas Landon Thorson, “Albert Camus and the Rights of Man”, Ethics , Vol.74, No. 4 (Jul., 1964): 284.4 Paul Edwards, Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1967), 15.5 Ibid.6

Ibid.7 Thorson, Albert Camus and the Rights of Man, 284.8 Coplestone, A History of Philosophy. Vol.IX ,( New York: Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1994), 391.9

Robert Solomon, Existentialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 187.10

Ibid.11

Nicholas Bunnin and Jiyuan Yu, Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 6.12

There is conflict between what we want from the universe (whether it be meaning, order, or reasons) and what

we find in the universe (formless chaos).13

Edwards, Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 16.14

Coplestone, A History of Philosophy. Vol.IX , 392.15

Stokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers, 155.16

Solomon, Existentialism, 189.17

Louis R. Rossi, “The Plague of Absurdity”, The Kenyon Review , Vol. 20 No.3 (Summer 1958): 399.18



Ibid.21

Absurdity is the atheistic equivalent of the Christian concept of sin, and more exactly, of original sin.22





Ibid.27

Solomon, Existentialism, 189.28

Ibid., 183.29

Thorson, Albert Camus and the Rights of Man, 286.30

Ibid.,287.31

Simpson, Albert Camus.32

Ibid.33


Domingo Rafael Alimajen, Historical Overview of Philosophical Developments in the 20th

Century. Unpublished

Text.35

Thorson, Albert Camus and the Rights of Man, 287.36

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism(Accessed 10 August 2012).37

Ibid.38

Simpson, Albert Camus.39

Stokes, Philosophy 100 Essential Thinkers, 155.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism

albert camus (existentialism)

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