Philosophy of Camus

Although Albert Camus is recognised as an important novelist and political commentator, he is often still underrated as a philosopher. Camus' Philosophy, focussing on Camus' explicitly philosophical writings, provides a detailed examination of his intellectual development, and argues that his work constitutes a coherent, carefully argued meditation on central philosophical themes. A systematic comparison of Camus with Soren Kierkegaard provides an interpretive lens through which Camus' central philosophical concerns are brought into focus. Camus' three thematic "e;cycles"e; - dealing with Absurdity, Revolt and Love/Nemesis - are compared and contrasted with Kierkegaard's three "e;stages of life"e; - the aesthetic, ethical and religious. Anthony Rudd argues that the Absurd in Camus refers primarily to an experience of the world as lacking Meaning, in a broadly religious sense, which Camus sees as entailing a radical amoralism. Rudd compares this outlook to Kierkegaard's "e;aestheticism"e;, before considering the reasons for Camus' eventual rejection of Absurdist amoralism for the ethical philosophy which Camus develops in The Rebel. Camus' Philosophy raises questions, in a Kierkegaardian spirit, about whether Camus' ethics can be viable without a fuller metaphysical background than he articulates in The Rebel. Rudd concludes by considering the continuing tension between Camus' affirmation of a Meaningful order in nature and his sensitivity to suffering and evil, looking at his account of tragedy and the apparent pessimism of his last published novel, The Fall.