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Albert Camus, Intro

Albert Camus, Intro. 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. Albert Camus, A Quote.

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Albert Camus, Intro

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  1. Albert Camus, Intro • 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.

  2. 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."

  3. Life, part 1 • Born in Algeria, to a French father and a Spanish mother. • 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.

  4. 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 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

  5. Life, part 3 • Associated with the group of writers surrounding French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, he and Sartre always agreed that Camus did not belong to the philosophical movement known as existentialism, of which Sartre was a major proponent. • In 1957 he received the Nobel Prize for literature.

  6. 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.

  7. World Views & Approach to Life • Theism • Deism • Naturalism • Nihilism • Existentialism • Mysticism • New Age • Determinist • Hedonist • Idealist • Pragmatist • Pessimist • Materialist

  8. Theism • Greek for "god" • Belief in one God who is personal and worthy of worship • Who transcends the world but takes an active interest in it • Who reveals his purpose for human beings through certain individuals, miraculous events, or sacred writings. • Human beings can enter into a personal relation with him and petition him in prayer. • He is morally perfect and infinitely powerful.

  9. Deism • Transcendent God, created universe but then left it. • God is not fully personal or sovereign over human affairs. • Humans are part of the clockwork of the universe. • We can determine what God is like by studying the universe.

  10. Hedonism “Pleasure”, the doctrine that pleasure is the sole or chief good in life and that the pursuit of it is the ideal aim of conduct. Two important hedonistic theories were expounded in ancient Greece.

  11. Egoistic Hedonists Egoistic hedonists--gratification of one's immediate personal desires, without regard for other persons, is considered the supreme end of existence. Knowledge is rooted in the fleeting sensations of the moment. Pleasure now vs. pain in the future.

  12. Rational Hedonists Epicureans, or rational hedonists, contended that the true pleasure is attainable only by reason. They stressed the virtues of self-control and prudence.

  13. Naturalism • Matter exists eternally & is all there is. God does not exist. • Universe is a closed system and more random than a “clock” • Humans are complex “machines.” • History is linear, no overarching purpose.

  14. Pragmatic • Pragmatism calls for ideas and theories to be tested in practice • Upon the idea or theory produces desirable or undesirable results. According to pragmatists • All claims about truth, knowledge, morality, and politics must be tested in this way.

  15. Nihilism, more a feeling philosophy • Negation of everything, nothing has meaning • No statement has validity, closed universe paradox. • Humans are conscious machines w/o ability to effect destiny, therefore are dead. • Nihilism is the natural child of naturalism.

  16. Determinist • Every event, mental as well as physical, has a cause, and that, the cause being given, the event follows invariably. • Denies the element of chance or contingency. • Opposed to indifferentism, or indeterminism, preceding events do not definitely determine subsequent ones.

  17. QuickWrite 10/18/99, Monday • Respond to this quote, “A literature of despair is a contradiction in terms . . .In the darkest depths of nihilism I have sought only for the means to transcend nihilism.” Or • Free Write (about weekend?)

  18. Existentialism • Cosmos is matter; 2 forms subjective & objective • Existence precedes essence; people make themselves who they are • Objective world stands over/against humans & appears absurd • Against Absurd, authentic person must revolt & create value

  19. Exist. slide 2, Moral Individualism • "I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die." • --Soren Kierkegaard

  20. Exist. Slide 3, Subjectivity • 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.

  21. Exist. slide 4, 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. • Must accept risk & responsibility.

  22. Materialist • Doctrine everything explained as being or coming from matter, the ultimate reality • Consciousness is physiochemical changes in the nervous system • Highest values lie in material well being & material progress

  23. Pessimist • Doctrine that reality, life, and the world are evil rather than good. • An entrenched negative state of mind, or a permanent expectation of the worst under all circumstances • May arise, depending on the temperament of the individual, from the reaction of a person to the difference between the world as it is and the world as it could be.

  24. Pessimist cartoon

  25. Mysticism-stay tuned

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