albert camus

"Why rebel if there is nothing permanent in oneself worth preserving? It is for the sake of everyone in the world that the slave asserts himself when he comes to the conclusion that a command has infringed on something in him which does not belong to him alone, but which is common ground where all men—even the man who insults and oppresses him-have a natural community."

albert camus - the rebel

my first week of being a philosophy major, i insanely took both history of analytic and phenomenology and existentialism, with the former immediately preceding the latter on tuesdays and thursdays.

not a good idea.

while i thoroughly enjoyed both classes (taught by dennis and shannon, respectively), as i was much more analytically aligned at the time, i had some difficulty grasping the continental realm of philosophy. heidegger pretty much made me want to rip my hair out. how is it with the nothing? HOW 'BOUT YOU SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FACE YOU STINKING NAZI!!!!

i wasn't sure if i was going to make it through the latter course... that is until i discovered existentialism. "now what is existentialism?" some of you ask. just wiki it, i don't have the talent nor the means to go into it. while i really enjoyed jean-paul sartre and simone de beauvoir, it was albert camus that really dragged me in. since reading the rebel in that class, i have devoured most of his writings, both the fiction and the philosophical. for a quick taste of his existential fiction, i suggest reading "the adulterous woman" in his exile and the kingdom. for a feast, read his the stranger and the plague, both of which are classics among philosophical fiction.

so why do i write about camus tonight? i'm not quite sure. for some reason last night i was sending my buddy jack some fight club quotes and decided to throw in a camus quote at the end. this turned into me sending a bunch of friends random camus quotes. and that turned into writing this post.