Albert Camus is the most badass of philosophers. Initially a journalist, he became a fighter in the French Resistance against the Nazis. After WWII, he befriended Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who were part of the rising Existentialist movement that came to dominate intellectual life in France for decades. But Camus disagreed with their ideas. Where they talked about GIVING life a meaning, Camus advocated living life WITHOUT meaning. This makes him sort of a Nihilist (he preferred the term "Absurdist") - and yet his is a philosophy of joy and celebration! Camus's philosophy begins with what he considers the only question of any real importance: Given the apparent pointlessness of all human life, why shouldn't we just commit suicide? He gives his answer in a famous essay based on the Greek Myth of the cursed Sisyphus: It's worth noting that Camus may have been able to get away with this simple argument because he was quite an attractive man, especially when placed alongside his "frenemy" Jean-Paul Sartre: YOUR TASK IN THE COMMENTS IS TO EXPLAIN THEIR PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE, THOUGH. IN OTHER WORDS, HOW IS CAMUS REJECTING SARTRE'S EXISTENTIALIST IDEAS HERE???
25 Comments
Parizaad Mohammadi
3/7/2017 06:50:08 am
Sarte believed in giving life meaning. Camus believed that life shouldn't have meaning. He believed that people would be much happier if they broke free and didn't try to fulfill or give their life meaning.
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Marissa Seely
3/7/2017 10:26:14 am
Sartre said "existence preceeds essence," or in other words, first we are born, then we create ourselves. He was all about giving life meaning and creating that meaning as we figure out who we are. Camus, in a sort of Nihilistic approach, rejected this by saying there isn't a meaning to life, and instead of creating one or searching for meaning in another life (religion, suicide), we should instead embrace this meaninglessness and create art that reflects it. The meaninglessness of life is a conflict we have to live with, and rather than run away from it, embrace it, and revolt.
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Jennifer Spinelli
3/8/2017 05:31:04 pm
Sartre said that life is inherently meaningless, and in order to really live, you must give it meaning. Do something you're passionate about. Camus agrees with the first part where he thinks life is meaningless, because we're all going to die. But he differs when he says, "No, don't give life a meaning. Why bother? Live it without one." But it's about happiness. So when he says that it kind of reminds me of myself when I'm putting something off and just doing what I want, I'm living without meaning and wasting my time but I'm happy.
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Michael Deitz
3/8/2017 07:19:47 pm
Sartre believes that all humans are responsible for each decision they make, every action taken, every step. We just embrace choosing our own destiny and give life a meaning and that is where true, authentic living comes from. Albert Camus, his friend and colleague, thought just the opposite of that, in fact his philosophy can be called anti-Existentialism. Camus stated that whatever other world we think of, actions taken, or meaning given to life is all poppycock. Life is without meaning, there are no instructions included when one is born unto this world. All life is absurd, without meaning, fully accepting that allows one to truly be at peace. If we embrace the absurdity of life, the meaninglessness of life, then and only then can we start to live life authentically. Living passionately, fighting meaninglessness through art and writing, and controlling ones own choices are the only important things in living. Anything else, to Camus, is just a distraction from the absurdity of the world around us, and to be ignorant to that is wrong.
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Emma Vollmuth
3/9/2017 04:11:11 am
Sarte believed that after we are born, we must work to create ourselves, find who we are, basically prove our essence. Camus, believed sort of the opposite. Camus said there is no meaning to life. He like Sarte knew we are all going to die eventually, but Camus thought that trying to give meaning to life and find our essence is pointless since our time on earth is so limited.
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Edith
3/9/2017 06:11:58 am
Sartre believed that life has the meaning that you give it and not that their is no meaning that you can give so you do whatever It is that you want, this is what Camus believes. Camus sees the world as something you can not make sense of. So he says the proper person is the Absurd man who does not care to deal with an irrational world and instead just does whatever and lives or not.
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Nelly Gomez
3/13/2017 06:49:16 am
Satre believed in giving life a meaning a making it the best of it. He believe that we are able to make our own decisions and should be able to handle our own consequences. Camus is the complete opposite.
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Paige Whittle
3/13/2017 02:20:18 pm
Sartre and Camus differ in their philosophies. Sartre says that in life, people should work to discover who they are. They are simply born a human being, so they have to make their own choices to find their purpose in life. On the other hand, Camus blatantly says there is no meaning to life and there is no purpose that the individual has, as we are all going to die eventually anyway. However, Camus does not look at life through the typical nihilistic lens. His philosophy is generally thought of as positive because he said that people should embrace the meaninglessness of life and the inevitable death of man and simply do whatever makes them happy. In this way, Camus reminds me of Epicurus, who said we are all just atoms, so we shouldn't worry, we should just be happy.
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Michelle Mazzucca
3/15/2017 07:04:23 pm
Sarte and Camus philosophies differ. On one hand, Sarte says that there is a meaning to life and one has to live a certain way in order to fulfill that meaning. On the other hand, Camus says that life is meaningless. He doesn't mean this in a negative way. Ironically, life being meaningless is beneficial and positive. Do whatever you desire. Nothing is worth stressing over. The only thing that matters is living life with a sense of peace and happiness.
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Corey Van Huff
3/16/2017 06:01:18 am
Well he believes that we shouldn't try and make an essence we should simply exist and be haply and live life to the fullest. There is no angst and all the heavy sh*t that comes with existentialism.
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Olivia Smelas
3/16/2017 08:06:55 am
I personally love Camu's philosophy. It is vital to realize that life is full of frequent rejections, pain, and ultimate suffering. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood, but I guess that makes me a little bit of a Nihilist. I definitely acknowledge the existence of suckiness. But, what's important is to fully embrace the suckiness and make it into sustainable life. Yeah, this sucks. But why not just take it for what it is, and conceptualize it as something joyful, hopeful even. Sartre believed that you had to work in order to discover who you are, and that life has only the meaning that you give it. Camu believed that there was no meaning at all, and I appreciate how his is still acknowledged as a happy and joyful philosophy. Unity is accompanied by suckiness I guess, and in this we create our own happiness and hope in a meaningless world.
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Meghan Pawlak
3/19/2017 05:56:36 pm
If you were to read a really deep poem full of abstract metaphors and you aren't really sure of what it's trying to say but you kinda get the gist of how it feels (ex. Shakespeare) Sartre would say that finding the meaning in the writing piece would be key to truly enjoying it. However with Camu he would say screw it and find a piece that doesn't beat around the bush and directly speaks what it means or screw poetry all together
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phoebe carr
3/22/2017 06:16:56 am
Camus and Sartre had similar viewpoints on the nothingness (or somethingness) of life, agreeing that there is no true meaning in what we do. The difference between the two is that Sartre believed we must therefore creating a meaning for our individual lives ourselves, whereas Camus said we must be content with the nothingness and not search for meaning, because searching for meaning in nothingness is a waste of time.
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Gabriella Lopez
3/22/2017 04:34:06 pm
Sartre argues that we must put in effort to discover ourselves. We have to try with the accomplishment of knowing who we are as individuals. Camus responds that we should not spend life trying to find our meaning. Our meaning is ultimately useless. In the end their main disagreement is that Sartre sees meaning in life while Camus sees life as meaningless.
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Will Weaver
3/23/2017 03:43:33 pm
Sarte and Camus believe that life is meaningless and we are alll eventually gonna die. However Sarte believes that we must give life a meaning through doing things we love, but Camus believes there is no point in trying when in the emd we will just end up dead.
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Kaitlyn Viola
3/24/2017 05:43:19 am
Jean-Paul Sartre believed that man is what he makes of himself, and that existence precedes essence. He said that human beings need a rational basis for their lives. Camus, on the other hand, believes in the absurdity of life. He believes essence precedes existence. He believed that life is meaningless, and we should live in constant rebellion.
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Paige Davis
3/24/2017 06:26:15 am
Sartre believed that you are first created and then give life your own meaning. You Create and figure out the sense of the world. Camus believed you can't make sense of the world so it has no meaning. They had two complete opposite views.
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Max Lowrey
3/30/2017 03:15:49 pm
Camus' philosophy was the exact opposite of Sarte; he believed that life had no meaning, no purpose, and by living every day we could basically make our own meaning with actually making it meaningful. Sartre believed that we could make meaning, while Camus thinks this is impossible.
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Holly Braverman
4/1/2017 10:45:05 pm
The so-called “frenemies” Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were French philosophers of the 1900s, the former being an existentialist, and the latter being a sort of anti-existentialist. Their philosophical debate was on the grounds of meaning in life. Sartre and his existentialist colleagues maintained that in order to live a fulfilling and “authentic” life, one must give life meaning. As Sartre put it: “existence precedes essence” — in other words, one must rise from their mundane and inevitably finite existence to define their “essence”/meaning. Camus challenged this notion, instead arguing that we should approach utterly meaningless life with acceptance as opposed to attempting to give it meaning. Camus’ absurdism therefore contrasts Sartre’s existentialism. Furthermore, rather than pursuing the existentialist major question of “how to live authentically”, Camus theorized that the ultimate philosophical question is “[given the apparent pointlessness of all human life,] why shouldn’t we commit suicide?”.
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Emily Fitzgerald
4/2/2017 05:39:17 pm
Sarte kind of reminds me of Aristotle in the sense that he believes that finding ourselves (our essence) takes time and effort. This is what sets him apart from Camus, who is a total Nihilist and thinks that our purpose is to die. Sarte would agree on the meaninglessness of life, but argue that we should be effort into life to give it the least bit of meaning. I see how they were friends at one point, and I think they were bound to argue and disagree at some point. Even though their philosophies start with the same foundation, they go in different paths, which is what causes the argument.
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Nora Fraser
4/2/2017 06:05:13 pm
Sartre said that first a person existed, and then they found meaning in life, and believed that the purpose of living was to make meaning in a meaningless world. Camus instead embraced the lack of meaning, and instead of trying to create meaning, said that a person should accept that life has no meaning and accept that death is inevitable. Camus's Absurd Man finds freedom and passion in meaninglessness without creating purpose.
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Julia maier
4/3/2017 05:19:31 am
Sartre believed you were born in this world to full fill something. Camus believed the opposite he thought life didnt have a meaning and there was no purpose, so we should create our own meaning.
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Dahlia Mozino
4/3/2017 06:06:25 am
Sartre is a firm believer in a life where meaning is subjective. There is no true meaning to life. Meaning is personal and different for each person. Camus on the other hand, says "Screw you, Jean! There is no meaning and you should accept that! Don't create a bullshit meaning! Just LIVE!"
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9/16/2020 06:44:02 pm
I like Albert Camus, he once said:"I spent many summer days at the popular beach Les Sablettes, in Algiers. I lived in destitution during my childhood but also in a kind of sensual delight, enjoying swimming, sunshine, sand and football. I am a Mediterranean man, with a healthy body worshipping beauty and the body like the ancient Greeks."
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4/21/2024 09:12:40 am
I have a much better Way;
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