10/10/19

Albert Camus: Life, the Absurd, and the Revolt

Introduction

He was Franco-Algerian, born 1913 in Algeria, and died in 1960. Raised in a poor working class family, his dad died in battle of Marne. In 1930, he developed tuberculosis. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy in Algeria. He played in goal at football there, and was very good.
Fell in love and married a morphine addict who later tragically died from morphine overdose. Camus really wanted to help her, to finance medicine and get over addiction, and as such was dedicated to her. However, she had had an affair with her doctor, which broke him, and kind of made him into a womaniser.

In later life, he joined and got kicked out of many communist parties.
Because he was born in Algeria, he was known as a "pied noir" (European origin born in Algeria), and, being poor, he was a bit on the margin of society.
He was rejected from French army for WW2 due to tuberculosis, fled Paris, and worked in a resistance newspaper. Close friends with Sartre and Simone de Beauvoire, he was in favour of European values and unity.

Towards the end of his life, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 and died in a car crash in 1960, with his publisher and friend. They found his final book and the train ticket he would have used that night in the wreckage. In terms of politics, he described himself as a left-leaning moralist. Experts consider him anarcho-syndicalist or existentialistanarchist. He is remembered for support of dialogue, civil rights, tolerance and skepticism.

His work is not same kind of philosophy as those who write on similar themes, such as Nietzsche or Kierkegaard; Camus is much more accessible.
Each idea of his tends to be conveyed in 3 cycles; with a play, novel, and philosophical essay/book. For example, on absurdism, written around WW2, he wrote: "The Stranger"/"The Foreigner" ("l'étranger") [novel], The Myth of Sisyphus [non-fiction book], and Calligula [play].

Work

The Myth of Sisyphus 

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide"

The novel is about an adult in Algeria, and begins with a very famous sentence: "today my mother died, or yesterday, I can't remember" setting the tone… of a person who is very affectionless and cut off from the world. The main character can't accept why things are as they are. He refuses to act like society wishes he would, and so society feels reacts poorly to him. You feel no emotion from the main character; he doesn't care about anything, and agrees almost randomly to a marriage, nor does he care about abuse he receives from a friend, which is very off-putting. About halfway through he commits a murder on the beach. It is described pointedly, wherein he takes out a knife, the sun and sweat on main character setting the scene, whilst this reasonless, meaningless murder occurs. When on trial, both the judge and society can't accept such meaninglessness. He is put on death row because of how apathetical he is seen (normally the sentence should've been 5-10 years), and when they learned he didn't cry his for mother. In his cell, he remembers all the little things he enjoyed in life; sun, his wife, etc. Through this (and by which Camus' philosophy arises), we're invited to defeat the absurd and nihilism, and revolt against the ordinary.

From Greek mythology, the Myth of Sisyphus is about a man punished by the gods to heave a boulder up a hill and watch it fall down over and over eternally. Camus plays upon this metaphor in his title to exploit a really prime example of meaninglessness and the absurd.

Taking a step back philosophically, what exactly is 'The Absurd'? It is the endlessness of life, which might be said to have the quality of absurdity in that we might think we can leave it. Nevertheless, Camus argues, it is within the absurd that we should endeavour to create. Such creation instantiates the human desire for answers in a vacuum - that there is something within us that directs us to looking for reasons and questions to solve about our existence, life, and death, in the face of absolute silence. Ought we to contemplate, though, that the world never will and never had answers, and we should just accept that (not go into folly like Nietzsche, or religion like Kierkegaard)? If this is the case, philosophies such as Camus', Nietzsche's or Kierkegaard's are of secondary consideration; first we need to decide whether we should commit suicide, and whether life is worth living or not; as such, all these other philosophies are just existential games.

"In any street corner, the absurd is there waiting for you". Just one decision away, Camus claims, is the absurd. The loss of belief in routine or habit can cause typical cases of the divorce of man and reality. Notwithstanding, it is the experience of the absurd that makes us human. To resuse the Cartesian addage, "I experience the absurd, therefore I am". It's not necessarily the world that is absurd, it is in that place where man and world meet that the absurd can be said to reside. 

In terms of suicide, Camus posits a distinction:
• Physical: wherein you kill yourself
• Philosophical: wherein you rest comfortably with the belief that you have found the answers to philosophical questions - Camus would call these beliefs false hopes.

"Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same ? …"
--> one must imagine Sisyphus happy. He revolts against the absurd of his life, and this should be enough to make him happy.

The Phenomenon of the Revolt

Camus gives an account of what a revolt is. This is when we agree that there is the absurd, which may stem from institutions such as organised religion or philosphical doctrines being perceived to have lied. It's when the people rise back up. It's a resistance against the absurd, but the method is not specified. The method can take the form of just laying there, enjoying the sun, or taking part in the French Revolution. Anything that means that you are fully aware of the absurd and still fighting to create meaning in the life. You should be freed by the fact that the world is meaningless: it's the jail-door that is open, and you are free to go explore and create your own meaning.

His Legacy

As a Nobel Prize winner, his literature has been recognised, and he is in the curriculum of schools both in France and around the world. In many ways, his work can be conceptualised almost as a rite of passage to know how to live through the world. 

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Discussion

• Camus also wrote about other philosophers, like an obscure Greek philosopher. He wrote a lot to Sartre, and they disagreed a lot.
• [Question] If there were one book to read from Camus, which one would be best?
• [Skander] The Stranger, or if too cold and off-putting, The Fall. For deeper philosophy, go to The Myth of Sisyphus or The Last Man.
• Camus really disliked labels, so he said "I'm neither an atheist nor an agnostic, and I don't believe in God nor not believe in God". He wanted to be free to express himself as he wanted, rather than abide by a label. He refused the existentialism conclusion that you should seek meaning, just not in a god. He thought that was very silly. But he is still classified as an existentialist as he addresses existential questions. He is also philosopher of the absurd, or of the ordinary, as he describes things taking pleasure in very simple things, eating or even the cold.
• Why did Camus think suicide was such a big matter? His concern was a lot about why life? He got to the conclusion that there was no meaning, and struggled with suicide concerns (tuberculosis didn't help)… and if life had no meaning, why suffer through life and bother? Why am I in this cage of life if there is no higher meaning? But he thought that choosing either form of suicide was also absurd, as if it were giving in to the world. In an uplifting metaphor, the argument that although fleeing the prison is not the best revolt, making your prison your home and making the best out of it, in order to make the best of life, seems to answer some of Camus' issues. Suicide, on the other hand, doesn't solve any problems. Camus thought life was worth living because there are so many things to enjoy.
• [Question] Does he think you can waste your life, kind of like Nietzsche on slave morality?
• [Skander] Camus definitely thought if you rejected suicide, you needed to reject murder as well. And that suicide was a bit of a waste. Living in itself is already a revolt, as long as you are conscious of the absurd. Living and enjoying your life is already a big "**** you" to the world. It's like stopping by the grass and thinking "geez, grass is a really nice colour" and enjoying it.
• The revolt doesn't have a definition by Camus, but, more to the point, the key notion is the advantage that you can revolt in the way you want. Even making your sandwich is a way of telling the world that you don't care that it is absurd.