Philosophy
1913 to 1960, Mondovi, French Algeria
The absurd, revolt, and the invincible summer - how to live well and stand with others in a world that offers no meaning.
Start learning Albert →Camus’s founding idea. The absurd is not a flaw in the world (which is merely silent) nor a defect in us (we merely want meaning); it is the collision between the two - our hunger for sense meeting a universe that…
Camus’s starting move: the one truly serious philosophical problem is suicide - whether life is worth living once we admit it has no given meaning. He rejects both literal suicide and the ‘philosophical suic…
Camus’s answer to the absurd, made unforgettable. Sisyphus, condemned to roll a boulder uphill forever, becomes the absurd hero - because in the lucid moment of his descent, scorning his fate and owning his rock,…
Camus’s turn from the solitary absurd to the shared world. In The Rebel , the act of saying ‘no’ to oppression reveals a ‘yes’ - a value the rebel holds in common with all humanity. Rebelli…
Camus’s mature answer to nihilism. Beyond the absurd and rebellion lies a positive ethic: Mediterranean ‘measure,’ the solidarity of common decency embodied in The Plague , and the discovery - ‘i…
More in Philosophy
AristotlePlatoImmanuel KantFriedrich NietzscheConfuciusSenecaEpictetusMarcus Aureliusepoché — a humanities education that remembers you.