Albert Camus-The Outsider

The Outsider is set in French Algeria, and has been translated from French into English.

It is an example of existentialism and absurdism, in the way that existentialists believe that individual lives and human existence have no rational meaning, but humanity attempts to find rational meaning where there is none. For example, turning to religion to give their lives a purpose or meaning. They also believe that the only certain thing in life is death. This is shown in the final chapter, when the main character, Meursalt, gives up false hope of escaping jail, and becomes truly happy knowing he is facing death.

The book is written in the perfect present tense. Thinking about the past results in guilt, and thinking about the future results in dread. Meursalt does not feel guilty about his past, showing no emotion at his mothers funeral, or over the murder he commits. He also does not dread the future, he is indifferent about marrying his girlfriend, and does not worry about the consequences of his actions. He only feels through his senses.

Meursalt is completely honest throughout the entire book. He rejects religion, even when he is facing certain death, because as mentioned above, he believes as an existentialist, that human existence has no rational meaning.

The characters in the book watch and observe others, especially Meursault. He spends an entire afternoon watching out of his window at other people in the street.

In the afterword, Camus says: "A man who doesn't cry at his mothers' funeral is liable to be condemned to death. The hero of the book is condemned because he refuses to lie. Lying is not only saying what isn't true, it is also saying more than is true, saying more than one feels. Meursault says what he is, he refuses to his feelings and society feels threatened."

The text can be found here: http://www.macobo.com/essays/epdf/CAMUS,%20Albert%20-%20The%20Stranger.pdf

I would recommend it to anyone reading this blog, as it is an interesting read, as well as insightful into existentialism.

HCJ Lecture-Existentialism

This lecture focused on existentialism and ideas.

Husserl believed that knowledge is a structure, with some ideas having more priority than others, depending on intention.

In the 1920s, Descartes made the statement "Cogito Irgo Sum" (I think, therefore I am). If a person is thinking, they must exist. He believed consciousness was in 2 parts (Dualism): me, and the world. This was accepted by all until 1927, when Heidegger claimed this was not true, all you can say is that there are ideas. This poses the question: What are ideas? Heidegger says that they are intentions, moods, ambiguity and the act of choosing.

Ideas and meaning is a structure of subjective values, and of decisions. This is where existentialism comes in. Existentialists are obsessed with decisions and choosing. Their lives are endless choices, responsibilities and consequences. The source of these decisions being social interaction, or convenience.

Everybody is a reflection of each other from the people you grow up with, to the people you meet at work. We live

inauthentic lives, meaning you are not the author of your own life.

One thing that was brought up in this lecture is phenomonology. This is looking at the familiar as unfamiliar and vice versa.

For example: Look at the image below. Do you see a duck, or a rabbit? Or both?

In existentialism, the self-possessed individual, a bedrock of the enlightenment and romanticism, is abandoned.

Heideggers claim proved Locke, Smith, Kant, Nietzsche and Freud wrong. Kant believed that all people are fundamentally the same. This is not true, according to Heidegger.

If you take away human interaction and senses, you become nothing. Studies have shown this using isolation tanks.

Heidegger believed that existence is a way of being, a structure of choices. It's not what you do, it's the way you do it. That's what really counts.

Kant said that time is not a unified thing. There are different types of time. This was backed up by Einstein, who claimed that time is a dimension of the Universe. We perceive the Universe in 3 dimensions. Time is the 4th. We cannot imagine a 2d universe, nor a 4d one.

If you were travelling at the speed of light, there would be no time.

If you were travelling faster than the speed of light, you would arrive before you had left.

Heidegger said that time is the structure of being, and has a 3-fold structure:

1) The past = guilt

2) The future = unknown

3) The present = dread

Existential morality aims to reduce feelings of guilt about the past, and promote indifference about the future.

The subjects mentioned in this blog are both featured in Sartres' play: No Exit: A drama set in a timeless universe. There are 3 characters in a blank waiting room. A beautiful lesbian who is in love with an unattractive heterosexual woman who is in love with a heterosexual man, who loves the lesbian. They are stuck in this love triangle, and in the waiting room, wracked with guilt and fear, which consigns them to a "hell" or eternal inauthenticity.

This weeks reading is Albert Camus-The outsider. The character Messarault is an existential hero-he refuses to be determined by other people, he seeks authenticity and tries to live by it. He has no guilt about his actions and does not care about the consequences, thus if his life is not authentic, it is less inauthentic than others.

There will be more about this reading after this weeks seminar.