Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195181579
- eISBN:
- 9780199786602
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195181573.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre were the giants of 20th-century “existentialism”, although neither of them was comfortable with that title. Their famous differences aside, they shared a ...
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Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre were the giants of 20th-century “existentialism”, although neither of them was comfortable with that title. Their famous differences aside, they shared a “phenomenological” sensibility and described personal experience in exquisite and excruciating detail and reflected on the meaning of this experience with both sensitivity and insight. That is the focus of this book: Camus and Sartre, their descriptions of personal experience, and their reflections on the meaning of this experience. They also reflected, worriedly, on the nature of reflection. The thematic problem of the book is the relationship between experience and reflection. The book explores this relationship through novels and plays, Camus’ The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall, Sartre’s Nausea and No Exit, and Sartre’s great philosophical tome, Being and Nothingness.Less
Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre were the giants of 20th-century “existentialism”, although neither of them was comfortable with that title. Their famous differences aside, they shared a “phenomenological” sensibility and described personal experience in exquisite and excruciating detail and reflected on the meaning of this experience with both sensitivity and insight. That is the focus of this book: Camus and Sartre, their descriptions of personal experience, and their reflections on the meaning of this experience. They also reflected, worriedly, on the nature of reflection. The thematic problem of the book is the relationship between experience and reflection. The book explores this relationship through novels and plays, Camus’ The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall, Sartre’s Nausea and No Exit, and Sartre’s great philosophical tome, Being and Nothingness.
Peter Dunwoodie
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159728
- eISBN:
- 9780191673696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159728.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter analyses the deferral of the ideal of countering the earlier strategies of erasure in the fiction of the Ecole d'Alger literary movement in Algeria. It explains that the works of Albert ...
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This chapter analyses the deferral of the ideal of countering the earlier strategies of erasure in the fiction of the Ecole d'Alger literary movement in Algeria. It explains that the works of Albert Camus, René-Jean Clot, and Marcel Moussy focused on the European population and critique many of the automatisms which marked that population. Clot's works, on the other hand, foregrounded the traditional colonial response which pastische racist stereotyping resulting from the always only partly successful derogatory descriptions of the Arab presence as alien, impenetrable, and unacceptable.Less
This chapter analyses the deferral of the ideal of countering the earlier strategies of erasure in the fiction of the Ecole d'Alger literary movement in Algeria. It explains that the works of Albert Camus, René-Jean Clot, and Marcel Moussy focused on the European population and critique many of the automatisms which marked that population. Clot's works, on the other hand, foregrounded the traditional colonial response which pastische racist stereotyping resulting from the always only partly successful derogatory descriptions of the Arab presence as alien, impenetrable, and unacceptable.
Peter Dunwoodie
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159728
- eISBN:
- 9780191673696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159728.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter examines the conflict between the Ecole d'Alger literary movement and the colonial presence in Algeria. It discusses the reversal of the denigration to which Algerians had been subjected ...
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This chapter examines the conflict between the Ecole d'Alger literary movement and the colonial presence in Algeria. It discusses the reversal of the denigration to which Algerians had been subjected in pre-Algerianist fiction. The dynamism and vitality of life in North African towns depicted by the Algerianists then became a central topos of some of the writers of the Ecole d'Alger. This chapter discusses how theatre and radio were exploited in a drive to communicate directly with a local public outside urban cultural circuits analyses Albert Camus' Le Premier Homme and Marcel Moussy's Arcole ou la terre promise.Less
This chapter examines the conflict between the Ecole d'Alger literary movement and the colonial presence in Algeria. It discusses the reversal of the denigration to which Algerians had been subjected in pre-Algerianist fiction. The dynamism and vitality of life in North African towns depicted by the Algerianists then became a central topos of some of the writers of the Ecole d'Alger. This chapter discusses how theatre and radio were exploited in a drive to communicate directly with a local public outside urban cultural circuits analyses Albert Camus' Le Premier Homme and Marcel Moussy's Arcole ou la terre promise.
Simon Gaunt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199272075
- eISBN:
- 9780191709869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272075.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This concluding chapter returns to the question of ethics, using a lyric by Gulhem IX, the first troubadour, to illustrate how courtly texts instantiate an ethics grounded in renunciation. It then ...
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This concluding chapter returns to the question of ethics, using a lyric by Gulhem IX, the first troubadour, to illustrate how courtly texts instantiate an ethics grounded in renunciation. It then offers a survey of selected post-medieval texts that seem to draw on this paradigm.Less
This concluding chapter returns to the question of ethics, using a lyric by Gulhem IX, the first troubadour, to illustrate how courtly texts instantiate an ethics grounded in renunciation. It then offers a survey of selected post-medieval texts that seem to draw on this paradigm.
Galen Strawson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199247493
- eISBN:
- 9780191594830
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199247493.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The Spectator Subject, or Theoria, is a self-conscious, self-moving purposive agent. She fulfils all the basic Structural S conditions on free agenthood introduced in Chapter 7. But she does not ...
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The Spectator Subject, or Theoria, is a self-conscious, self-moving purposive agent. She fulfils all the basic Structural S conditions on free agenthood introduced in Chapter 7. But she does not appear to be a free agent, on account of the peculiarity of her sense of self, and, in particular, the peculiarity of her attitude to her desires and herself as an agent. She resembles Camus's étranger; she is somehow disengaged from life, including her own. When she alludes to one of his own desires, it's as if she is recounting a fact about a feature of the world extraneous to her; for she seems to be just the detached reporting self. The Spectator Subject suggests a further condition on freedom. One must not be detached in the way she is. One must be ‘Integrated’ or engaged. One must fulfill the Integration Condition. This is an Attitudinal condition on freedom, not a Structural condition.Less
The Spectator Subject, or Theoria, is a self-conscious, self-moving purposive agent. She fulfils all the basic Structural S conditions on free agenthood introduced in Chapter 7. But she does not appear to be a free agent, on account of the peculiarity of her sense of self, and, in particular, the peculiarity of her attitude to her desires and herself as an agent. She resembles Camus's étranger; she is somehow disengaged from life, including her own. When she alludes to one of his own desires, it's as if she is recounting a fact about a feature of the world extraneous to her; for she seems to be just the detached reporting self. The Spectator Subject suggests a further condition on freedom. One must not be detached in the way she is. One must be ‘Integrated’ or engaged. One must fulfill the Integration Condition. This is an Attitudinal condition on freedom, not a Structural condition.
Peggy Kamuf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282302
- eISBN:
- 9780823284801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282302.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This short introduction reviews how this book came about after a long and varied engagement with Derrida’s seminar. It explains both the choice of texts in the chapters that follow and why other ...
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This short introduction reviews how this book came about after a long and varied engagement with Derrida’s seminar. It explains both the choice of texts in the chapters that follow and why other texts were not included, such as Richard Wright’s Native Son and Camus’s The Stranger (except for a brief reading in chapter 1).Less
This short introduction reviews how this book came about after a long and varied engagement with Derrida’s seminar. It explains both the choice of texts in the chapters that follow and why other texts were not included, such as Richard Wright’s Native Son and Camus’s The Stranger (except for a brief reading in chapter 1).
Peggy Kamuf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282302
- eISBN:
- 9780823284801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282302.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter reviews Derrida’s engagement with literature in The Death Penalty, Volume I. It explicates the notion of “the right to literature” and its relation to democracy (“No democracy without ...
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This chapter reviews Derrida’s engagement with literature in The Death Penalty, Volume I. It explicates the notion of “the right to literature” and its relation to democracy (“No democracy without literature; no literature without democracy,” as Derrida has declared elsewhere). It works through Derrida’s reading of texts by Genet, Hugo, and Blanchot. It also recalls Derrida’s analysis in Given Time of the “absolute secret” of literature and includes a brief reading of Camus’s The Stranger.Less
This chapter reviews Derrida’s engagement with literature in The Death Penalty, Volume I. It explicates the notion of “the right to literature” and its relation to democracy (“No democracy without literature; no literature without democracy,” as Derrida has declared elsewhere). It works through Derrida’s reading of texts by Genet, Hugo, and Blanchot. It also recalls Derrida’s analysis in Given Time of the “absolute secret” of literature and includes a brief reading of Camus’s The Stranger.
Fred Dallmayr
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813165783
- eISBN:
- 9780813165813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813165783.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Chapter 6 examines some variations and examples of conflicts between community and freedom, starting from the glorification of radical self-interest in social Darwinism and proceeding to more ...
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Chapter 6 examines some variations and examples of conflicts between community and freedom, starting from the glorification of radical self-interest in social Darwinism and proceeding to more ethically nurtured dissent (such as the resistance movement against the Nazi regime in Germany). In opposition to the “possessive” or property-centered idea of freedom in social Darwinism and neoliberalism, the chapter turns to socially engaged conceptions of individual freedom, civil disobedience, and dissent—conceptions articulated especially in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Camus. Their views and actions cast a very different light on the possible antagonism between individualism and society, presenting the radical dissenter as an agent seeking to raise social or community life to a higher ethical level.Less
Chapter 6 examines some variations and examples of conflicts between community and freedom, starting from the glorification of radical self-interest in social Darwinism and proceeding to more ethically nurtured dissent (such as the resistance movement against the Nazi regime in Germany). In opposition to the “possessive” or property-centered idea of freedom in social Darwinism and neoliberalism, the chapter turns to socially engaged conceptions of individual freedom, civil disobedience, and dissent—conceptions articulated especially in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Camus. Their views and actions cast a very different light on the possible antagonism between individualism and society, presenting the radical dissenter as an agent seeking to raise social or community life to a higher ethical level.
Jean-Luc Nancy
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263387
- eISBN:
- 9780823266333
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263387.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less ...
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This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less in what he describes as nearing malaise or discontent. Though the energy of the atom had not yet been discovered in 1929, Freud augured that humanity will destroy itself as it is able to overcome nature in so many ways. Camus would have described Hiroshima as the brutal suicidal act of civilization. Maybe, what is meant is not civilization in its entirety since the atom has many non-military uses. But Nishitani could only describe the utilization of the atom as a “war without enemy,” because it is a war against humanity. This is exemplified after Hiroshima by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and then Fukushima. What can happen next is an apocalypse or revelation and unveiling. But, more probably a satori or awakening to nothingness and with no understanding is what will follow.Less
This chapter starts with a question which contains a play on words: Civilization of the irremediable or an irremediable civilization? Freud then comes into the picture with terms he used more or less in what he describes as nearing malaise or discontent. Though the energy of the atom had not yet been discovered in 1929, Freud augured that humanity will destroy itself as it is able to overcome nature in so many ways. Camus would have described Hiroshima as the brutal suicidal act of civilization. Maybe, what is meant is not civilization in its entirety since the atom has many non-military uses. But Nishitani could only describe the utilization of the atom as a “war without enemy,” because it is a war against humanity. This is exemplified after Hiroshima by Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and then Fukushima. What can happen next is an apocalypse or revelation and unveiling. But, more probably a satori or awakening to nothingness and with no understanding is what will follow.
Jeremy Jennings
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203131
- eISBN:
- 9780191728587
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203131.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
This chapter begins with an analysis of debates about the meaning of France in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. Having examined the nature of anti-Semitism at this time, it explores the ...
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This chapter begins with an analysis of debates about the meaning of France in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. Having examined the nature of anti-Semitism at this time, it explores the polemics associated with the Dreyfus Affair and the emergence of the intellectual as a political actor. Charting the revival of nationalism it explores the response of French thinkers to the First World War and the subsequent events that were to shape inter-war opinion. It looks in particular at the controversy over the role of the intellectual associated with Julien Benda and Paul Nizan. From this follows an extended discussion among intellectuals about the appropriate role of political engagement after the Second World War. The key figures under discussion are Camus, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Raymond Aron, and Michel Foucault.Less
This chapter begins with an analysis of debates about the meaning of France in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war. Having examined the nature of anti-Semitism at this time, it explores the polemics associated with the Dreyfus Affair and the emergence of the intellectual as a political actor. Charting the revival of nationalism it explores the response of French thinkers to the First World War and the subsequent events that were to shape inter-war opinion. It looks in particular at the controversy over the role of the intellectual associated with Julien Benda and Paul Nizan. From this follows an extended discussion among intellectuals about the appropriate role of political engagement after the Second World War. The key figures under discussion are Camus, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Raymond Aron, and Michel Foucault.
Franco Cassano
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823233649
- eISBN:
- 9780823241750
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823233649.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Albert Camus is a thinker of friction who questions not only the teleology of Christianity, Marxism, and the philosophies of history in post-Kantian ideology, but upholds values that are no longer ...
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Albert Camus is a thinker of friction who questions not only the teleology of Christianity, Marxism, and the philosophies of history in post-Kantian ideology, but upholds values that are no longer current in modernity, such as a Donquixotesque notion of honor. Focusing on Camus, this chapter revisits Greek culture. In 1937, against a background marked by dictatorship, empire building, and racism, Camus delivered the lecture “The New Mediterranean Culture” (1937) on the occasion of the inauguration of the Maison de la Culture in Algiers. He not only targeted the aggressive ideologies that were seeking to establish the superiority of one culture over another, but sought to counter them through a humanistic foundation of tolerance and respect for the other as it is posited in Mediterranean civilizations. This chapter discusses Camus's Southern thought and his views on history and nihilism, revolt and moderation, and fraternity in frailty and guilt, and also considers poverty and the South, style and honor, and aristocracy and freedom.Less
Albert Camus is a thinker of friction who questions not only the teleology of Christianity, Marxism, and the philosophies of history in post-Kantian ideology, but upholds values that are no longer current in modernity, such as a Donquixotesque notion of honor. Focusing on Camus, this chapter revisits Greek culture. In 1937, against a background marked by dictatorship, empire building, and racism, Camus delivered the lecture “The New Mediterranean Culture” (1937) on the occasion of the inauguration of the Maison de la Culture in Algiers. He not only targeted the aggressive ideologies that were seeking to establish the superiority of one culture over another, but sought to counter them through a humanistic foundation of tolerance and respect for the other as it is posited in Mediterranean civilizations. This chapter discusses Camus's Southern thought and his views on history and nihilism, revolt and moderation, and fraternity in frailty and guilt, and also considers poverty and the South, style and honor, and aristocracy and freedom.
Joseph Frank
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239252
- eISBN:
- 9780823239290
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239252.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book consists of essays and reviews that address social, political, and cultural issues which arose in connection with literature broadly conceived in the wake of World War I, and extending ...
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This book consists of essays and reviews that address social, political, and cultural issues which arose in connection with literature broadly conceived in the wake of World War I, and extending throughout the twentieth century. The first portion of the volume concerns France, with both essays on individual writers—such as Paul Valéry, Jacques Maritain, Albert Camus, Andre Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Yves Bonnefoy—and a piece on French intellectuals between the wars. The second part concerns Germany and Romania, with essays on Ernst Juenger, Gottfried Benn, Erich Kahler, E. M. Cioran, and others. The volume concludes with essays on problems of literary criticism—in dialogue with such critics as Gary Saul Morson, Ian Watt, T. S. Eliot, and R. P. Blackmur—that also discuss the history of the novel and the question of “realism.”Less
This book consists of essays and reviews that address social, political, and cultural issues which arose in connection with literature broadly conceived in the wake of World War I, and extending throughout the twentieth century. The first portion of the volume concerns France, with both essays on individual writers—such as Paul Valéry, Jacques Maritain, Albert Camus, Andre Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Yves Bonnefoy—and a piece on French intellectuals between the wars. The second part concerns Germany and Romania, with essays on Ernst Juenger, Gottfried Benn, Erich Kahler, E. M. Cioran, and others. The volume concludes with essays on problems of literary criticism—in dialogue with such critics as Gary Saul Morson, Ian Watt, T. S. Eliot, and R. P. Blackmur—that also discuss the history of the novel and the question of “realism.”
Jonathan F. Krell
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781789622058
- eISBN:
- 9781800341319
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789622058.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Vercors’s You Shall Know Them, published shortly after WWII, grapples with the question of how to define humans and how to differentiate them from animals. This “animal question” is closely linked to ...
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Vercors’s You Shall Know Them, published shortly after WWII, grapples with the question of how to define humans and how to differentiate them from animals. This “animal question” is closely linked to the “law of the strongest” and a long history of racism, imperialism, and capitalism, as exposed in Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. Archeologists, looking for fossils, discover a tribe of intelligent ape-like hominids in New Guinea, and no one can determine if they are human or another species of great apes. A businessman wants to castrate most males, intern them in camps, and use them as cheap labor in his wool mills, an ominous reference to the Nazi concentration camps that had so recently shaken Vercors’s humanist convictions, laying bare the bestiality of humans. After a long trial, it is decided that the hominids should be considered human, because, worshipping fire, they manifest a spirit of religion. Like Camus’s “Human Crisis” lecture of 1946, You Shall Know Them is a call for the restoration of human dignity, annihilated by the savagery of the war.Less
Vercors’s You Shall Know Them, published shortly after WWII, grapples with the question of how to define humans and how to differentiate them from animals. This “animal question” is closely linked to the “law of the strongest” and a long history of racism, imperialism, and capitalism, as exposed in Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. Archeologists, looking for fossils, discover a tribe of intelligent ape-like hominids in New Guinea, and no one can determine if they are human or another species of great apes. A businessman wants to castrate most males, intern them in camps, and use them as cheap labor in his wool mills, an ominous reference to the Nazi concentration camps that had so recently shaken Vercors’s humanist convictions, laying bare the bestiality of humans. After a long trial, it is decided that the hominids should be considered human, because, worshipping fire, they manifest a spirit of religion. Like Camus’s “Human Crisis” lecture of 1946, You Shall Know Them is a call for the restoration of human dignity, annihilated by the savagery of the war.
Joseph Frank
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239252
- eISBN:
- 9780823239290
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239252.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In the early years of his career, before The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger made their mark, Albert Camus was far better known as a journalist than in any other capacity. He published articles ...
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In the early years of his career, before The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger made their mark, Albert Camus was far better known as a journalist than in any other capacity. He published articles between 1944 and 1947 in Combat, an underground journal established before France was liberated, and which continued to appear for a few years after that time. Journalism seems to form a very minor aspect of Camus' multifarious activity as novelist, playwright, theatre director, and cultural-political commentator, but it played a much larger role in his life than is usually recognized. Camus refuses to accept the repugnance of mankind so prominent in Jean-Paul Sartre, and so unforgettably dramatized in the latter's play, Huis Clos (No Exit). But when The Myth of Sisyphus was published in 1942, it was at first considered part of the philosophy of existentialism brought into vogue by Sartre's novel, stories, and his major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness.Less
In the early years of his career, before The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger made their mark, Albert Camus was far better known as a journalist than in any other capacity. He published articles between 1944 and 1947 in Combat, an underground journal established before France was liberated, and which continued to appear for a few years after that time. Journalism seems to form a very minor aspect of Camus' multifarious activity as novelist, playwright, theatre director, and cultural-political commentator, but it played a much larger role in his life than is usually recognized. Camus refuses to accept the repugnance of mankind so prominent in Jean-Paul Sartre, and so unforgettably dramatized in the latter's play, Huis Clos (No Exit). But when The Myth of Sisyphus was published in 1942, it was at first considered part of the philosophy of existentialism brought into vogue by Sartre's novel, stories, and his major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness.
François Hartog
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620207
- eISBN:
- 9781789623727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620207.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
François Hartog’s piece is on what he calls the ‘modern regime of historicity’ and how Sartre’s and Camus’s relationships with that ‘regime’ evolved, and how the latter constituted a facet of their ...
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François Hartog’s piece is on what he calls the ‘modern regime of historicity’ and how Sartre’s and Camus’s relationships with that ‘regime’ evolved, and how the latter constituted a facet of their rupture. Hartog traces Sartre’s move away from a literature of ‘exis’ (think La Nausée) to a literature of ‘praxis’ (Les Chemins de la liberté). Hartog places the Sartrean trajectory in contrast with that of Camus who, in the postwar period came to reject the ‘religion’ of history. For Camus, the priority was the present moment, and what was necessary was not to make history, but rather to prevent the world ‘from destroying itself.’Less
François Hartog’s piece is on what he calls the ‘modern regime of historicity’ and how Sartre’s and Camus’s relationships with that ‘regime’ evolved, and how the latter constituted a facet of their rupture. Hartog traces Sartre’s move away from a literature of ‘exis’ (think La Nausée) to a literature of ‘praxis’ (Les Chemins de la liberté). Hartog places the Sartrean trajectory in contrast with that of Camus who, in the postwar period came to reject the ‘religion’ of history. For Camus, the priority was the present moment, and what was necessary was not to make history, but rather to prevent the world ‘from destroying itself.’
Ramin Jahanbegloo
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- November 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190130541
- eISBN:
- 9780190992965
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190130541.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Social History
In today's global climate of pre-packaged opinions, every effort of original thinking is an act of dissent. To think radically today is to be a heretic: committing ‘heresy’ not in its theological ...
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In today's global climate of pre-packaged opinions, every effort of original thinking is an act of dissent. To think radically today is to be a heretic: committing ‘heresy’ not in its theological sense, but in relation to its ancient Greek roots, which means ‘choice’. With the rise of the post-industrial global village dominated by media networks and technology-led communication, the ‘epidemic of conformism’ has completely paralysed intellectuals' ability to question. It has now become critical to examine the central role of heresy in the formation of critical thinking and anti-dogmatism. Since the time of Socrates to the present, public intellectuals have aligned themselves with the heretical imperative by questioning organized power and opened up social, political, economic, and cultural life to public scrutiny and accountability. This effort is described in this book through the self-examined lives of philosophers such as Socrates and José Ortega y Gasset, Albert Camus, and Yukio Mishima. They serve to elaborate the context of the author's bold claim that B.R. Ambedkar, the central character of the author's research, is the boldest heretic in Indian political history.Less
In today's global climate of pre-packaged opinions, every effort of original thinking is an act of dissent. To think radically today is to be a heretic: committing ‘heresy’ not in its theological sense, but in relation to its ancient Greek roots, which means ‘choice’. With the rise of the post-industrial global village dominated by media networks and technology-led communication, the ‘epidemic of conformism’ has completely paralysed intellectuals' ability to question. It has now become critical to examine the central role of heresy in the formation of critical thinking and anti-dogmatism. Since the time of Socrates to the present, public intellectuals have aligned themselves with the heretical imperative by questioning organized power and opened up social, political, economic, and cultural life to public scrutiny and accountability. This effort is described in this book through the self-examined lives of philosophers such as Socrates and José Ortega y Gasset, Albert Camus, and Yukio Mishima. They serve to elaborate the context of the author's bold claim that B.R. Ambedkar, the central character of the author's research, is the boldest heretic in Indian political history.
Neil Cornwell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719074097
- eISBN:
- 9781781700969
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719074097.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses absurdist practice during the twentieth century, examining absurdism in the works of some writers, namely Fernando Pessoa, Antonin Artaud and Camus. It notes that these writers ...
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This chapter discusses absurdist practice during the twentieth century, examining absurdism in the works of some writers, namely Fernando Pessoa, Antonin Artaud and Camus. It notes that these writers can be regarded as absurdists, and that they sometimes embrace absurdist qualities. The chapter also clarifies that the use of the word ‘absurd’ does not guarantee that a work is to be considered – with justification – as fully or solely belonging to the ‘literature of the absurd’.Less
This chapter discusses absurdist practice during the twentieth century, examining absurdism in the works of some writers, namely Fernando Pessoa, Antonin Artaud and Camus. It notes that these writers can be regarded as absurdists, and that they sometimes embrace absurdist qualities. The chapter also clarifies that the use of the word ‘absurd’ does not guarantee that a work is to be considered – with justification – as fully or solely belonging to the ‘literature of the absurd’.
Mor Segev
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197634073
- eISBN:
- 9780197634103
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197634073.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This book examines the long-standing debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. ...
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This book examines the long-standing debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. Philosophical optimists maintain that the world is optimally arranged and is accordingly valuable, and that the existence of human beings is preferable over their nonexistence. Philosophical pessimists, by contrast, hold that the world is in a woeful condition and ultimately valueless, and that human nonexistence would have been preferable over human existence. Schopenhauer criticizes the optimism he locates in the Hebrew Bible and in Spinoza for being unable to square the presumed perfection of the world and its parts, including human life, with the suffering and misfortunes observable in them, and for leading to egoism and thereby to cruelty. Nietzsche, in turn, criticizes Schopenhauer’s overtly pessimistic view, inter alia, for furtively positing a perfect state for one to aspire to, thus being latently optimistic. Similarly, Camus charges Nietzsche, who announces his rejection of both optimism and pessimism, with deifying the world and oneself, thereby reverting to optimism. Interestingly, Aristotle countenances an optimistic theory, later adopted and developed by Maimonides, that is arguably capable of facing Schopenhauer’s challenge. Aristotelian optimism accounts for the perfection of the world in terms of a hierarchy of value between its parts, with human beings ranked relatively low, and recommends an attitude congruent with that ranking.Less
This book examines the long-standing debate between philosophical optimism and pessimism in the history of philosophy, focusing on Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Camus. Philosophical optimists maintain that the world is optimally arranged and is accordingly valuable, and that the existence of human beings is preferable over their nonexistence. Philosophical pessimists, by contrast, hold that the world is in a woeful condition and ultimately valueless, and that human nonexistence would have been preferable over human existence. Schopenhauer criticizes the optimism he locates in the Hebrew Bible and in Spinoza for being unable to square the presumed perfection of the world and its parts, including human life, with the suffering and misfortunes observable in them, and for leading to egoism and thereby to cruelty. Nietzsche, in turn, criticizes Schopenhauer’s overtly pessimistic view, inter alia, for furtively positing a perfect state for one to aspire to, thus being latently optimistic. Similarly, Camus charges Nietzsche, who announces his rejection of both optimism and pessimism, with deifying the world and oneself, thereby reverting to optimism. Interestingly, Aristotle countenances an optimistic theory, later adopted and developed by Maimonides, that is arguably capable of facing Schopenhauer’s challenge. Aristotelian optimism accounts for the perfection of the world in terms of a hierarchy of value between its parts, with human beings ranked relatively low, and recommends an attitude congruent with that ranking.
Judith Still
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640270
- eISBN:
- 9780748671786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640270.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter raises the question of names in a range of different contexts of (in)hospitality, but in order to focus the topic, it keeps returning to Algeria and to the French (uninvited guests). It ...
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This chapter raises the question of names in a range of different contexts of (in)hospitality, but in order to focus the topic, it keeps returning to Algeria and to the French (uninvited guests). It discusses the power of names — proper names, of course, with their special link to the individual subject or to a place, but also common nouns and even adjectives used to designate people and places. It begins with some introductory comments about naming and about hospitality. It then turns to the reception (hospitable or otherwise) of two French-Algerians (first Cixous and then Derrida) by their Anglophone readers, and asks how we tend to designate these two writers who set so much store by the question of naming. The chapter analyzes three issues around naming in Cixous's writing on Algeria: the name she gave her Algerian maid as a child, the importance of the use of adjectives to qualify people, and the name ‘brother’. Finally, it turns to Albert Camus. Camus's famous short story ‘L'Hôte’, usually translated as ‘The Guest’, was written as the Algerian War of Independence was approaching, and is set in Algeria almost at the time of writing.Less
This chapter raises the question of names in a range of different contexts of (in)hospitality, but in order to focus the topic, it keeps returning to Algeria and to the French (uninvited guests). It discusses the power of names — proper names, of course, with their special link to the individual subject or to a place, but also common nouns and even adjectives used to designate people and places. It begins with some introductory comments about naming and about hospitality. It then turns to the reception (hospitable or otherwise) of two French-Algerians (first Cixous and then Derrida) by their Anglophone readers, and asks how we tend to designate these two writers who set so much store by the question of naming. The chapter analyzes three issues around naming in Cixous's writing on Algeria: the name she gave her Algerian maid as a child, the importance of the use of adjectives to qualify people, and the name ‘brother’. Finally, it turns to Albert Camus. Camus's famous short story ‘L'Hôte’, usually translated as ‘The Guest’, was written as the Algerian War of Independence was approaching, and is set in Algeria almost at the time of writing.
Colin Davis
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786940421
- eISBN:
- 9781786945112
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781786940421.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Camus’s great novel L’Etranger was published in 1942. Although it contains no explicit reference to the war, the chapter argues that it bears the marks of a trauma text. It is compared to his more ...
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Camus’s great novel L’Etranger was published in 1942. Although it contains no explicit reference to the war, the chapter argues that it bears the marks of a trauma text. It is compared to his more polemical essays, Lettres à un ami allemand, which acknowledge the need for armed resistance to the German Occupation.Less
Camus’s great novel L’Etranger was published in 1942. Although it contains no explicit reference to the war, the chapter argues that it bears the marks of a trauma text. It is compared to his more polemical essays, Lettres à un ami allemand, which acknowledge the need for armed resistance to the German Occupation.
