Sophia 50 (4):543-559 (2011)
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Abstract |
Camus published an essay entitled ‘Nietzsche and Nihilism,’ which was later incorporated into The Rebel . Camus' aim was to assess Nietzsche's response to the problem of nihilism. My aim is to do the same with Camus. The paper explores Camus' engagement with nihilism through its two major modalities: with respect to the individual and the question of suicide in The Myth of Sisyphus , and with respect to the collective and the question of murder in The Rebel . While a Nietzschean influence thoroughly suffuses both books, it is in the second that Camus' most explicit, and most critical, engagement with the German philosopher takes place. The crux of Camus' critique of Nietzsche is that the absolute affirmation of existence he proposes as a response to nihilism cannot say ‘no’ to murder. In the terms of Camus' discussion in The Rebel , Nietzsche's philosophy is thus culpable in the straying of rebellion from its own foundations and its slide into bloody revolution. First, the paper argues that Camus' criticisms of Nietzsche are misplaced. Camus focuses his analysis on sections of the problematic text The Will to Power and misses important sections of Nietzsche's published texts which in fact support the condemnation of revolution which is the project of The Rebel . However, the paper argues that Camus moves beyond Nietzsche in radically democratizing the response to nihilism. While Nietzsche's hopes for the creation of meaning are focused on exceptional individuals, Camus insists that any response to nihilism needs to be accessible to the average person. Such a move is laudable, but it raises a number of questions and challenges regarding the type of problem nihilism is, and how these might be addressed
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Keywords | Albert Camus Nihilism Friedrich Nietzsche Absurdity Thomas Nagel |
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DOI | 10.1007/s11841-011-0274-0 |
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References found in this work BETA
What Computers Still Can’T Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason.Hubert L. Dreyfus - 1992 - MIT Press.
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Citations of this work BETA
Teachers as Absurd Heroes: Camus’ Sisyphus and the Promise of Rebellion.Mordechai Gordon - 2016 - Educational Philosophy and Theory 48 (6).
Ethics and Aesthetics of Non-Duality: Responses to Nihilism From Nietzsche to Camus.Adrian Moore - 2019 - Dissertation, The University of Queensland
Nietzsche’s Lenzer Heide Notes on European Nihilism.Daniel Fidel Ferrer & Friedrich Nietzsche - 2020 - Verden: Kuhn von Verden Verlag.
Nietzsche’s Notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same.Daniel Fidel Ferrer & Friedrich Nietzsche - 2021 - Verden, Germany: Kuhn von Verden Verlag..
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