In this essay, I will explore the question of an effective shared human morality and whether it needs a basis for judgement or can be created just by the choices and actions of human beings. First, I will explore Sartre's creative point of constructing one's morality. Second, I will consider Albert Camus' focus on the uniqueness of each's morality due to the distinct and essential awareness of living. Finally, I will argue the need for universal and a priori values to create an effective shared human morality to provide a base consciousness for everyone and to satisfy the human instinct to be guided.
In Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre defines existentialism and clarifies its intentions. He states that this philosophy begins
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His focus was on absurdity and how suicide is not its answer. It is a moment of understanding, clarity that brings man revolt, freedom and passion (Camus 48). These three consequences of absurdity give life its meaning and importance. For Camus, absurdity is a notion mankind should accept and preserve to live in awareness of its presence. Welcoming the absurd also comes with the relation to nothingness and death. It starts with an odd thought and leads to the questioning of the everyday life, and when it grows evident, ''no code of ethics and no effort are justifiable a priori'' (14). Camus explains that values start to lose their meaning when lucidity begins to prevail. Quantity over quality experiences and consciousness become very important as there is no standard to judge the quality lived adventures (45-46). The only judgment allowed is self-judgment; whether we are consciously living in one direction and repeating our experiences or not. Revisiting adventures is essential as it is a necessary process due to life's absurd nature; our desires are never met and the process to look for meaning continues. For Albert Camus, creation is a way of mimicking our reality by repeating over and over (69). Additionally, how we choose to showcase our personal worlds shows us the different moralities each person creates. For Camus, it is also important as there are no pre-existing values that there is no judgment, no need to be correct or justification while creating; "to acquire this savoir-vivre which transcends savoir-faire''
A disturbing thought about man’s ethical barometer is that most of the theories, categories and principles emanate from the point of man’s reason. There is a cause to shudder at the thought of man as the absolute authority of what is right and wrong; what is ethical and what is not. Born into a sinful nature, man will ultimately make decisions that will lead to a moral philosophy that is shaky at best. Even philosophers with the best of intentions fall short to God’s model for the order, organization, and meting out of ethical actions. Because of man’s finite vision of what should be done to improve the present situation, mankind will always be found lacking in making the best ethical decisions; not being able to see the long term outcome and the impact those decisions and actions would have on others in the world.
In the essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus attempts to give answers to some tough questions. He wants to know if life is worth living or how we can make it worth living, as well as whether or not it is possible to live with certainty. To him, the absurd man realizes that life is absurd after his expectations are repeatedly contradicted and he realizes the world is an unreasonable place that cannot be explained. These unreasonable expectations of certainty ultimately cause many absurd men to think that life is not worth living when they are faced with what they feel is a hopeless situation. Camus offers an alternative to the problem the absurd man faces and it is not suicide or “Philosophical suicide”. Other philosophers commit philosophical suicide by suggesting that there is enough evidence, whatever it maybe, that one should survive on hope alone or make some leap. But Camus thinks that if a person is honest and truthful to themselves that they know they are nothing more than “a stranger” in this world. So how does one live a life worth living when faced with absurdity?
In his works, The Stranger (The Outsider) and Myth of Sisyphus, Camus addresses the consciousness of Meursault and Sisyphus through their fate.
Existentialism is a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining his or her own development through acts of the will. To Sartre, saying that som...
rolling a rock to the top of a mountain and then watching it roll back
The Myth Of Sisyphus The myth of Sisyphus was a paper written by Albert Camus to show that life has no ultimate meaning. These goals of men and women are false and in the end humans really accomplish nothing. Camus represented his idea of existentialism through the use of Sisyphus. This allows us to see a comparison between a mythical tale and the real world.
John Paul Sartre is known as one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He wrote many philosophical works novels and plays. Much of his work is tied into politics. The essay Existentialism is a Humanism is just one of his many works. Existentialism is a Humanism is a political essay that was written in 1945. Its purpose was to address a small public during World War II in Nazi occupied France. This essay stressed the public not to conform. Sartre introduced a great number of philosophical concepts in Existentialism. Two of these concepts are anguish and forlornness. They are simply defined, as anguish is feeling responsible for yourself as well as others and knowing that your actions affect others and forlornness is realizing that you are alone in your decisions. These two concepts are interwoven throughout the essay and throughout many of Sartre's other works. Sartre's view of anguish and forlornness in Existentialism is a Humanism addresses his view of life and man.
Existentialism is a term that was coined specifically by Jean-Paul Sartre in regards to his own life. Sartre had adopted the Atheistic approach to life and its meaning, and while he was not the first or only one to do so, was the first and only one to come up with a way to describe it. Under Existentialism, man lives without higher power or guidance and must rely solely on himself and what he is aiming to do in order to lead a fulfilling life. This can be anything. Critics of Sartre propose that, because such a vast array of options exists within the meaningfulness of life, this philosophy is obsolete and trivial in nature. This is not true, as it is seen in everyday examples – celebrities, namely – that a thirst
Suffering and hardship are a part of life. You can look at any culture, any country, any family, and see that, at any point in time, there is something that can seem absurd or hopeless. The Myth of Sisyphus is a prime example in having experience absurd suffering with no end in sight, where Sisyphus is punished by the gods to push a bolder up to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down and start all over again. Albert Camus, however, says that in any absurd situation, happiness is present. To Camus, Sisyphus is an absurd man, yet he has the ability to find small moments of happiness during his eternal punishment. Sisyphus finds happiness at the top of the hill, almost celebrating his small, redundant accomplishment of reaching
This word has been used when describing Milan Kundera’s style of writing. The term existentialism came from Jean Paul Sartre, a French philosopher. Existentialism emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. The philosophy focuses on the existence of man. Sartre believed that to be a true existentialist one must accept that there is no God therefore man is alone with only himself to rely on for all decisions. This gives man total freedom of choice. However with this total freedom comes the responsibility of knowing one must choose wisely.
Jean-Paul Sartre was a philosopher in the 1940s. At that time, he wrote his renowned book Existentialism is a Humanism. One of the most important concepts that came from this book is the idea
Many of us may be well acquainted with the word Existential from phrases like, “late night existential crisis,” or “teenage existential angst.” But contrary to popular belief, existentialism isn’t just about the terrifying meaninglessness of the universe, it is personally thought of being a hopeful way of thinking, because even though it does acknowledge the terrifying meaninglessness of the universe, it also revolves around the idea that we can create our own meaning or projects which is more or less what Sisyphus is all about. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Sisyphus has to carry a boulder up an mountain and then watch it roll back down only to go and push it back up again. Camus writes that, “It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus
Albert Camus considers absurdity to be a fight, a force pushing between our mind’s desire to have meaning and understanding and the blank empty world beyond. In argument with Nagel, Camus stated “I said that the world is absurd, but I was too hasty. This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world.”[1] He continues that there are specific human experiences evoking notions of absurdity. Such a realization or encounter with the absurd leaves the individual with a choice: suicide, a leap of faith, or recognition. He concludes that recognition, or realization, is the only defensible option.[2] The realization that life is absurd and cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it.[3]
Absurdity is as well a major theme in Camus’ The Stranger. Camus symbolizes absurdity through many representations. Absurdness plays a major role in The Stranger, Camus was an existentialist who really believed that there was no rational order to when things will occur they just happen or why they happen life has no meaning there’s no true reason why one is here on earth one can really see this belief in The Stranger. No one really has a purpose here because in the end everyone will die and it will make no difference to everyone else or the universe. One of the main symbols that Camus uses to develop the theme of absurdity in the universe is Meursault who finds no meaning in anything that’s where we see how Meursault in reality is the hero
In Sartre’s “Existentialism Is a Humanism” he talks about existentialism and what it is. Sartre also says how truth is not in god or nature but is in ourselves because of our actions (Sartre). The many ideas in this passage show how Sartre revolves his life around and tells more people to focus on themselves to find their identity. Sartre states backs up his statement of how truth is not in god or nature by saying existentialism means that even if god existed that no difference would be made about truth. “Existentialism is not an atheist in the sense that it would exhaust itself in demonstrations of the non-existence of God.