Sunday 27 March 2011

L'Etranger - Albert Camus

L'Etranger (1942) is a novel by Albert Camus. It's theme and outlook are examples of existentialism, it also explores various philosophical schools of thought - absurdism - determinism - nihilism.

Existentialism focuses on the condition of human existence and an individuals emotions - action - responsibilities - thoughts - meaning or purpose of life.

"The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent meaning in life and the human inability to find any. Absurd does not mean "logically impossible"

Determinism In physics - is known as cause-and-effect.

Nihilism is the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Existential nihilism - argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism can also take epistemological - metaphysical - ontological forms - meaning that in aspect of knowledge is not possible or that contrary to our belief some aspects of reality does not exist!