Camus's Philosophy: PHL A11 Introduction To Ethics PDF

PHL A11 Introduction to Ethics September 28 Albert Camus continued ● Recap of: Lecture plan ○ Idea 1: the absurd ○ Idea 2: the point is to live ● Idea 3: The myth of Sisyphus 2 Camus begins from the idea that the world is absurd: life has no meaning or purpose. All attempts to find such pur...

PHL A11 Introduction to Ethics September 28 Albert Camus continued ● Recap of: Lecture plan ○ Idea 1: the absurd ○ Idea 2: the point is to live ● Idea 3: The myth of Sisyphus 2 Camus begins from the idea that the world is absurd: life has no meaning or purpose. All attempts to find such purpose (whether through religion or philosophy) are in vain. Camus’s question: how can we live in an absurd world? 3 Camus describes several ways in which we may be led to an existential crisis: ● We reflect on the repetitiveness of our daily lives—doing the same tasks, over and over. ● We’re overcome by the “strangeness” of the world (a strangeness we try to disguise by applying categories to the world: “tree,” “rock,” the complex concepts of science). ● We dwell on the fact that every day brings us closer to death. 4 But Camus doesn’t think we must respond to absurdity with despair. ● If there’s no larger purpose to our existence, then we have the freedom to set our own purpose. ● If every day is a step closer to death, then we should rebel against death by living passionately and consciously while we can. 5 “Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences which are my revolt, my freedom and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death—and I refuse suicide” (62). 6 Camus’s absurdist philosophy combines: ➔ The belief that nothing has any inherent “meaning” or “value”: all human attempts to find the real meaning of life or our true purpose in the world are doomed to failure, as is the attempt to prove that there are categorical moral rules or objective ethical values. This view is sometimes called nihilism. ➔ An ethic of how we should respond to the lack of meaning or value: not with despair, sorrow, or suicide, but by embracing life while we can. We should view it as a liberation to not be defined by some external meaning or purpose. We should feel victorious in living passionately in the face of absurdity. It is an ethic of optimism. 7 Too permissive? A worry: does Camus’s philosophy make everything morally permissible? (Remember Dostoyevsky: “If God is dead, then everything is permitted.”) Right after concluding that life in an absurd world is about “not the best living but the most living,” Camus says: “It is not up to me to wonder if this is vulgar or revolting, elegant or deplorable. Once and for all, value judgements are discarded here in favour of factual judgements… Supposing that living in this way were not honourable, then true propriety would command me to be dishonourable” (59). Camus himself lived by moral values: he risked his life in the French resistance to the Nazi occupation, and he was an outspoken advocate for various humanitarian causes. But does his absurdist philosophy allow us to say against the person who is passionately devoted to the very opposite values? Does it allow us to criticise the Nazi? 8 Simone de Beauvoir (in The Second Sex) and Frantz Fanon (in Black Skin, White Masks), broadened existentialism beyond the questions asked by Camus (e.g. how do we live once we’ve honestly confronted the absurd?). They took up a different existential question: How do we live once we’ve honestly confronted the systems of patriarchy and white supremacy? What space is there for freedom when we have been defined and limited in terms of “sex” or “race”? 9 Camus’s big idea 3: The myth of Sisyphus 10 Sisyphus’s punishment Sisyphus was a trickster in Greek mythology. In one story, he trapped Death (Thanatos) in his own chains, meaning that humans no longer died. As punishment for his trickery and disobedience, Hades condemned Sisyphus to push a boulder up a mountain, again and again, forever. 11 Here’s how Sisyphus’s punishment is described in Homer’s The Odyssey: “And I saw Sisyphus at his endless task raising his prodigious [enormous] stone with both his hands. With hands and feet he tried to roll it up to the top of the hill, but always, just before he could roll it over on to the other side, its weight would be too much for him, and the pitiless stone would come thundering down again on to the plain. Then he would begin trying to push it up hill again, and the sweat ran off him and the steam rose after him.” 12 Camus calls Sisyphus “the absurd hero” and uses the myth as a metaphor for the absurdity of human life. ➔ “His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted towards accomplishing nothing.” (108). ➔ Camus thinks that pointlessness and repetitiveness of Sisyphus’s punishment is relatable: “The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks and this fate is no less absurd” (109). He calls Sisyphus the “proletarian”—the working class—“of the gods.” 13 Is this relatable? What are the “rocks” that you have to push, day after day, no end in sight? Work? Chores? School? Simply living? Cartoon from The New Yorker 14 How should we imagine Sisyphus’s state of mind? Camus wants us to really imagine Sisyphus’s perspective: his struggle as he heaves the boulder up the mountain, and his state of mind as he descends to start again. ➔ The descent is the time of “consciousness,” when Sisyphus can reflect on his existence and his fate. ➔ In these moments, Sisyphus may sometimes be overcome by sorrow or despair. But Camus doesn’t think this need be so: sometimes, he may descend in joy! ◆ Why? How? Because he is alive. His pointless task cannot take that away. ◆ If Sisyphus remains conscious of his existence, if he remains “rebellious” instead of giving into despair, he can find joy in life, even though it is absurd. ◆ “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn” (109). 15 “I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks… The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (111). 16 Can we also choose happiness over despair in our Sisyphean struggles? Can we be grateful for life, rather than depressed by its absurdity? Cartoon from The New Yorker 17 Consider Waymond’s speech in Everything Everywhere All At Once: “When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I've learned to survive through everything… This is how I fight.” 18 The myth of Sisyphus: study questions Interpretative questions (about what the author means): How does Camus use the myth of Sisyphus to explain his ethic of living consciously, passionately, and optimistically in the face of absurdity? How does Camus think the myth Sisyphus relates to the everyday existence of ordinary people? Critical questions (about whether the author makes a good argument): Can you imagine Sisyphus happy? Even if not, can you still see a valuable lesson in what Camus is saying here? 19 Keep pushing that boulder! 20