ALBERT CAMUS

ALBERT CAMUS(1913-1960)Born in Mondovi, Algeria in 1913During the war, Camus, published a number of works which have become associated with his doctrine of the absurdThe Myth of Sisyphus(1942; Eng. Trans.,1955) is an essay dedicated to the absurdInfluences: Nietzche, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, Hemingway, and Dos Passos

Sisyphus represents the humankindHis task, to roll the large boulder up to the hill and watch it fall down and roll it back again and again, a meaningless task which represents the day-to-day work and activities of a manand his task, to roll the large boulder up to the hill and watch it fall down and roll it back again and again, a meaningless task which represents the day-to-day work and activities of a man. 5ABSURDITYMANWORLDAbsurdity Life is meaningless, useless, and nihilistic existence (In Nietzshean context)Camus:There is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe (whether it be meaning, order, or reasons) and what we find in the universe (formless chaos)8Conclusion:We will never find in life itself the meaning that we want to findNo matter what we do in our lives, we all will come up to the point of questioning its meaning Camus claims that there is a huge discrepancy between what we want in this life and what it has to offer. 9If life has no meaning, does that mean life is not worth living?Options availableLeap of FaithCommit Suicide

THERE IS A THIRD POSSIBILITYWe can accept and live in a world devoid of meaning or purposeKierkaegaard, Chestov, and Jaspers and Husserl, existentialists and phenomenologistAll confront the contradiction of the absurd but then try to escape from it.Existentialists find no meaning or order in existence and attempt to find some sort of transcendence or meaning in this very meaninglessness

Camus:absurd is the human condition, a confrontation between a mans want to search for a meaning, clarity and significance, and the silent, cold universe. He also adds that there are such human experiences that induce the notions of absurdity.15With the knowledge of this absurdity leaves an individual with a choice: a suicide, leap of faith or recognition.

way out of absurdityconfession that life is not worth livingFor Camus suicide is vital that it offers the most basic way out of absurdity. That suicide is a "confession" that life is not worth living; it is a choice implicitly declaring that life is "too much". It is the immediate closure of the self and its place in the universe.

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the absurd encounter can also arouse a leap of faith where one believes that there is more than the rational lifeBy a recognition of the absurd, a flexible power is initiates with faith having no expectations. Conversely, Camus firmly states that because the leap of faith escapes rationality and defers to abstraction over personal experience, the leap of faith is not absurd.18Camus considers the leap of faith as the existential attitude philosophical suicide which rejects this and physical suicide.

In the recognition of absurdity, a person can choose to embrace his or her own absurd condition

To live without appeal, as Camus stated it, if the absurd experience is truly the realization that the universe is fundamentally devoid of absolutes, then humans are truly free.

The freedom of humans is established in their natural ability and opportunity to search or create his own meaning and purpose, to decide or reflect for him- or herselfones freedom and the opportunity to give life meaning lies in this very recognitionThis defines absolutes and universals subjectively, rather than objectively.20Camus 3 Characteristics of the Absurd LifeRevoltWe must not accept any answer or reconciliation in our struggleBy revolt Camus meant that it refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd21FreedomWe are absolutely free to think and behave as we choosehe suggested that it refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others moral codes223. PassionWe must pursue a life of rich and diverse experiencehe refers it as the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so it is concluded that every moment be lived fully23Camus Absurd ManHe respects reason and wants to understand all thingsThis is beyond his reach but he does not claim it is impossible, only that his own limits make it personally impossibleSee that in the long run absolutely nothing mattersFaces cosmic futility without flinching or whiningSisyphus was condemned to roll a heavy stone to the top of the hill only to watch it crash down and roll it up again and again-forever.Sisyphus is the absurd heroThree Steps(Camusian Revolt)AcknowledgementAcceptanceAccomplishmentthese are acknowledgment; makes the absurd all part of ones own, acceptance which mean that one should accept ones fate and the last one was the accomplishment which means that one should choose to live a life devoid of its meaning or purposes.27Premise 1:Sisyphus life is meaningless and absurd

Premise 2: He has accepted the punishment given to him

Conclusion: He must be happy. One must imagine Sisyphus happyWhen he is on the bottom, he has a hope that he will reach the topEven for a second he is on the top of the hill and looks up and smiles. It is his movement of happiness and scorn to the fate makerHe also suggests that we should be hopeful of getting happiness but happiness is always momentaryWe should try to make our own fateThere is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scornWithout facing the absurdity, we cannot get happiness but it is not necessary that happiness must come after absurdityWe should hope but should not be sure of happiness because it is momentaryHappiness and absurdity go together like the two sons of the same mother earthCamus:Suicide is not a worthwhile solutionWe should engage in living, and accept the fact that we certainly live in a world without a purposeSuicide is a way of avoiding the Absurd, rather than continuing to live in spite of itTHOMAS NAGELBorn in Yugoslavia in July 4, 1937American philosopherStudied at Cornell University and University of Oxford. Completed his Ph.D. at Harvard University under John Rawls

Contributions to philosophyPhilosophy of mind, ethics and political philosophyCrique on the reductionist accounts of the mind, What Is it to Be a Bat?Deontological and liberal moral and political theory, The Possibility of AltruismThe View from Nowhere

The View from Nowhere Chapter 11Hazards that resulted to the combination of perspectiveI. Life