Handout For Camus

The Stranger and It's True Philosophies: A brief one page summary

Thesis: Albert Camus’s The Stranger defies the label of Absurdism and rather creates an ideal or philosophy of its own construction, and a view that would better support Camus’s true philosophical beliefs and interests. I. What is Absurdism?: the theory of life's meaninglessness: the idea that the universe is without meaning or rational order and that human beings, in attempting to find a sense of order, conflict with it. Aspects of Absurdims: 1. Humanity will not/cannot find meaning in the universe. 2. Humanly impossible vs. logically impossible. Origins: Soren Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling: The story of Abraham and the killing of his son Issac, and how he goes against everything he believes in. The Sickness Unto Death: Talks about forms of despair which transitions well with absurdism. Albert Camus: The Absurd man: “…He who, without negating it, does nothing for the eternal. Not that nostalgia is foreign to him. But he prefers his courage and his reasoning. The first teaches him to live without appeal and to get along with what he has; the second informs him of his limits. Assured of his temporally limited freedom, of his revolt devoid of future, and of his mortal consciousness, he lives out his adventure within the span of his lifetime…” II. Camus Views: Uncomfortable with moral indifference: Letters to a German friend “I, on the contrary, choose justice in order to remain faithful to the world. I continue to believe that this world had no ultimate meaning, but I know that something in it has meaning and that is man, because he is the only creature to insist on having one. This world has at leas the truth of man and our task is to provide its justification against fate itself, and it has no justification but man, hence, he must be saved if we want to save the idea we have of life. With your scornful smile you will ask me, “What do you mean by saving man?” And with all my being I shout to you that I mean not mutilating him, and yet giving a chance to the justice that man alone can conceive.” Myth of Sisyphus: “The absurd does not liberate; it binds. It does not authorize all actions. ‘Everything is permitted’ does not mean that nothing is forbidden.” Fascination and acceptance of contradictions: Letters to a German Friend: at the very moment when we are going to destroy you [Nazis] without pity , we still feel no hatred for you. Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: mankind and its societies are larger than one person III. Applications to The Stranger and How the Mold is Broken Moral repercussions due to actions Arab shooting, Lack of emotion, Trial, and Death. The moral repercussions due to his absurd actions in the eyes of society. The Discovery of the Meaning of the Universe “As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate”