Albert Camus

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Albert Camus

• The Absurd

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• Nonsense of Life
• A. Fundamental question of philosophy Is life
  worth living?
• 1. Living is not easy.
• 2. Man is a creature of habit.
• 3. Committing suicide happens when man decides
  that. . .
• a. Daily habits are ridiculous.
• b. There is no profound reason to live.
• c. Daily agitation is insane.
• d. Suffering is useless.

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• B. The Feeling of Absurdity
• 1. Comes from the nausea of mechanical daily
  existence
• a. Same routine, day after day
• b. Lassitude leads to the question, Why?
• c. In a world without sparkle, man is a
  stranger.
• 2. Is a result of the divorce between man and
  his life.
• 3. Is revealed by the certainty of death.
• 4. Comes from believing that each day is subject
• to tomorrow. Therefore, time is an enemy.
• 5. Comes when intelligence recognizes that it
  cannot understand the world.
• The world is irrational.

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• C. Definition of the absurd
• 1. The absurd is neither in the world , nor in
  man, but in their common presence. It is born of
  their apparent contradiction.

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• The Absurd Man
• Camus refuses to condone acts of avoidance like
  suicide which suppress mans conscience and
  doctrines.
• Camus decides to live only with that which is
  known.

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• C. Camas assigns three consequences to the
  absurd.
• 1. Revolt
• a. A perpetual confrontation between man
  and his own obscurity.
• b. It is not an aspiration, but rather, it is
  the absence of hope.
• c. It gives man a sense of nobility.
• d. It is the certainty of a crushing fate.

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• 2. Freedom
• a. The absurd man sets aside the problem
  of personal liberty within, because it
  relates to the belief in God.
• b. The absurd allows man to see things
  from a new perspective.
• (Man knows that his condition is without
  hope)

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• 3. Passion
• a. Living in an absurd universe consists
  of multiplying intelligible experiences with
  passion.
• b. Camus insists on the quantity rather
  than the quality.
• c. Man must be ready to pay for his
  actions.
• d. Man is his one and only end.

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• The Stranger
• According to Germaine Brée Camus was unable to
  accept traditional religious interpretations of
  mans universal condemnation. Life itself is the
  cause of this tragic problem.
• Meursault tells the story himself in the first
  person but objectively with a kind of flat,
  impersonal precision as if he is a stranger to
  the events.

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• What do you think of Meursault?
• - Unresponsive.
• - Puzzling.
• - Some what repellent.
• As we advance in the story, he appears to be
  sincere and honest. He says what he understands
  and feels. He does not wish to hurt others. It
  is only by his lack of sensitivity to the social
  conventions that Camus makes us realize
  Meursaults inability to feel shame and his
  indifference to social conformity.

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• Is Meursault a rebel?
• He is not a man who looks at himself as different
  from other men.
• Although, he does not know what interests him, he
  knows what does not interest him.
• Is Meursault proud, arrogant, or dejected?
• He enjoys the simple pleasure of everyday life.
• Underneath his apparent indifference, he slowly
  changes until he is filled with passion and
  bitterness.

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• What is the unique value of life?
• Meursaults life must be lived with a passionate
  enjoyment to the fullest.