The Black Side of the Sun: Camus, Theology, and the Problem of Evil

Albert Camus is typically categorized as an atheistic thinker, in the same breath as Sartre. Yet there is a sizable, often sympathetic, theological response to his works, which deal at great length with Christian themes, wrestle with the problem of evil, and are animated by his own avowed desire — in strong contrast with Sartre and other existentialists — to preserve a sense of the sacred without belief in human immortality. This essay reconstructs three components of Camus’s rapport and disagreement with Christian theology, which he approached pre-eminently through the figure of Augustine, central to his early Diplome thesis. First, we recount the young Camus’s neopagan ‘‘religiosity’’ — a sense of the inhuman majesty and beauty of the natural world at the heart of what he termed (and later regretted terming) the ‘‘absurd,’’ and rooted in Camus’s own unitive experiences growing up amidst the sea, sand, and blazing sun of North Africa. Second, we look at Camus’s engagement with the problem of evil, which for Camus — as for many early modern thinkers such as Bayle or Voltaire — represented the decisive immanent tension in later medieval theology, vindicating — in ethical terms — the modern rebellions against altar, pulpit, and throne. The essay closes by rebutting the charge, strongly argued recently by Ronald Srigley, that Camus was (both) anti-modern because anti-Christian. Camus’s aim, we propose, was instead to bring together a neopagan sense of the wonder of the natural world and our participation in it, with the egalitarian components of Christian ethics, severed from secularized eschatological content.

On a neglected argument in French philosophy: Sceptical humanism in Montaigne, Voltaire and Camus

This paper wants to draw out a common argument in three great philosophers and littérateurs in modern French thought: Michel de Montaigne, Voltaire, and Albert Camus. The argument makes metaphysical and theological scepticism the first premise for a universalistic political ethics, as per Voltaire's: "it is clearer still that we ought to be tolerant of one another, because we are all weak, inconsistent, liable to fickleness and error." The argument, it seems to me, presents an interestingly overlooked, deeply important and powerful contribution to the philosophical discourse of modernity. On one hand, theological and post-structuralist critics of "humanism" usually take the latter to depend either on an essentialist philosophical anthropology, or a progressive philosophy of history. The former, it is argued, is philosophically contestable and ethically contentious (since however we define the human "essence," we are bound to exclude some "others"). The latter, for better or worse, is a continuation of theological eschatology by another name. So both, if not "modernity" per se, should somehow be rejected. But an ethical universalism - like that we find in Montaigne, Bayle, Voltaire, or Camus - which does not claim familiarity with metaphysical or eschatological truths, but humbly confesses our epistemic finitude, seeing in this the basis for ethical solidarity, eludes these charges. On the other hand, philosophical scepticism plays a large role in the post-structuralist criticisms of modern institutions and ideas in ways which have been widely taken to license forms of ethics which problematically identify responsibility, with taking a stand unjustifiable by recourse to universalizable reasons. But, in Montaigne, Voltaire and Camus, our ignorance concerning the highest or final truths does not close off, but rather opens up, a new descriptive sensitivity to the foibles and complexities of human experience: a sensitivity reflected amply, and often hilariously, in their literary productions. As such, a critical agnosticism concerning claims about things "in the heavens and beneath the earth" does not, for such a "sceptical humanism," necessitate decisionism or nihilism. Instead, it demands a redoubled ethical sensitivity to the complexities and plurality of political life which sees the dignity of "really-existing" others, whatever their metaphysical creeds, as an inalienable first datum of ethical conduct and reflection. After tracking these arguments in Montaigne, Voltaire, and Camus, the essay closes by reflecting on, and contesting, one more powerful theological argument against modern agnosticism's allegedly deleterious effects on ethical culture: that acknowledging ignorance concerning the highest things robs us of the basis for awe or wonder, the wellspring of human beings' highest ethical, aesthetic, and spiritual achievements.

‘In joy we prepare our lessons’: Reading Camus’ Noces via their reception of the Eleusinian mysteries

Nobel Prize winning author Albert Camus situates his meditations in both the opening and closing essays in his 1937 collection Noces by referring to the classical Eleusinian mysteries centring around the myths of Dionysus and the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Noces’ closing piece ‘The Desert’ directly evokes the two levels of initiation involved in the classical Eleusinian cult in a way which prompts us to reframe the preceding essays beginning at Tipasa as akin to a single, initiatory trajectory. The kind of ‘love of life’ the opening ‘Nuptials at Tipasa’ had so marvellously celebrated, we are now informed, is not sufficient by itself. The entire round of these four essays, whose framing suggest four seasons (Spring in Tipasa, Summer at Algiers, then Autumn in Florence), are intended by Camus to enact just what the title, Noces, suggests in the context of the mysteries: namely, that hieros gamos or sacred union of man with nature or the gods at the heart of the ancient cults, tied very closely at Eleusis with reverence for the fecundity of nature, reborn each year with the return of Persephone from Hades to her grieving mother Demeter.

Camus, philosophe: to return to our beginnings

Camus, Philosophe: To Return to our Beginnings is the first book on Camus to read Camus in light of, and critical dialogue with, subsequent French and European philosophy. It argues that, while not an academic philosopher, Albert Camus was a philosophe in more profound senses looking back to classical precedents, and the engaged French lumières of the 18th century. Aiming his essays and literary writings at the wider reading public, Camus’ criticism of the forms of ‘political theology’ enshrined in fascist and Stalinist regimes singles him out markedly from more recent theological and messianic turns in French thought. His defense of classical thought, turning around the notions of natural beauty, a limit, and mesure makes him a singularly relevant figure given today’s continuing debates about climate change, as well as the way forward for the post-Marxian Left.

La contextualisation du discours radiophonique par des moyens prosodiques. L’exemple de cinq grands philosophes français du XXe siècle

"Radiodiskurssin kontekstualisointi prosodisin keinoin. Esimerkkinä viisi suurta ranskalaista 1900-luvun filosofia" Väitöskirja käsittelee puheen kontekstualisointia prosodisin keinoin. Toisin sanottuna työssä käsitellään sitä, miten puheen prosodiset piirteet (kuten sävelkulku, intensiteetti, tauot, kesto ja rytmi) ohjaavat puheen tulkintaa vanhastaan enemmän tutkittujen sana- ja lausemerkitysten ohella. Työssä keskitytään seitsemään prosodisesti merkittyyn kuvioon, jotka koostuvat yhden tai usean parametrin silmiinpistävistä muutoksista. Ilmiöitä käsitellään sekä niiden akustisten muotojen että tyypillisten esiintymisyhteyksien ja diskursiivisten tehtävien näkökulmasta. Aineisto koostuu radio-ohjelmista, joissa puhuu viisi suurta ranskalaista 1900-luvun filosofia: Gaston Bachelard, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Maurice Merleau-Ponty ja Jean-Paul Sartre. Ohjelmat on lähetetty eri radiokanavilla Ranskassa vuosina 1948–1973. Väitöskirjan tulokset osoittavat, että prosodisesti merkityt kuviot ovat moniulotteisia puheen ilmiöitä, joilla on keskeinen rooli sanotun kontekstualisoinnissa: ne voivat esimerkiksi nostaa tai laskea sanotun informaatioarvoa, ilmaista puhujan voimakasta tai heikkoa sitoutumista sanomaansa, ilmaista rakenteellisen kokonaisuuden jatkumista tai päättymistä, jne. Väitöskirja sisältää myös kontrastiivisia osia, joissa ilmiöitä verrataan erääseen klassisessa pianomusiikissa esiintyvään melodiseen kuvioon sekä erääseen suomen kielen prosodiseen ilmiöön. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että tietynlaista melodista kuviota käytetään samankaltaisena jäsentämiskeinona sekä puheessa että klassisessa musiikissa. Lisäksi tulokset antavat viitteitä siitä, että tiettyjä melodisia muotoja käytetään samankaltaisten implikaatioiden luomiseen kahdessa niinkin erilaisessa kielessä kuin suomessa ja ranskassa. Yksi väitöskirjan osa käsittelee pisteen ja pilkun prosodista merkitsemistä puheessa. Tulosten mukaan pisteellä ja pilkulla on kummallakin oma suullinen prototyyppinsä: piste merkitään tyypillisesti sävelkulun laskulla ja tauolla, ja pilkku puolestaan sävelkulun nousulla ja tauolla. Merkittävimmät tulokset koskevat kuitenkin tapauksia, joissa välimerkki tulkitaan prosodisesti epätyypillisellä tavalla: sekä pisteellä että pilkulla vaikuttaisi olevan useita eri suullisia vastaavuuksia, ja välimerkkien tehtävät voivat muotoutua hyvin erilaisiksi niiden prosodisesta tulkinnasta riippuen.

Sapientia, 2004, Vol. LIX, nº 216 (número completo)

Contenido: Josef Pieper en el centenario de su nacimiento / Héctor J. Delbosco – Misterio filosófico y misterio teológico en Josef Pieper y en Santo Tomás de Aquino / Ignacio Andereggen – El status de la filosofía en la posciencia. Respuestas desde Josef Pieper / Miriam Dolly Arancibía de Calmels – “Miseria y esplendor de la interpretación”. En torno a los límites de la hermenéutica en Pieper y en Ortega / Roberto E. Aras – Si sí : la condicionalidad metafísica de una afirmación absoluta / Santiago Argüello – Una perspectiva del saber y de la fortaleza en el héroe unamuniano a la luz de Josef Pieper / Angélica S. Arza de Bousquet – Manía, mito y conmoción erótica / Luis Baliña ; Juan Torbidoni – Juventud, fiesta y esperanza en la obra de Josef Pieper : una respuesta a la cultura posmoderna / Santiago Bellomo – Pieper y Guardini en Rothenfels : un encuentro fecundo / Alberto Berro – La afirmación real del amor / María José Binetti – Josef Pieper al encuentro de Platón : una relectura de las relaciones entre mito y filosofía / Claudio Calabrese – Orientación y pautas de discernimiento en el ámbito poético-literario : la doctrina de la contemplación terrena enunciada por Josef Pieper e ilustrada en Albert Camus / Inés de Cassagne – La imposibilidad de una filosofía no cristiana según Josef Pieper / Agustín Ignacio Echavarría – Ética y psicoterapia según Josef Pieper / Martín Echavarría – Enseñanzas de un gran maestro : la corruptibilidad de la palabra / María del Carmen Fernández – La inspiración platónica de la filosofía de Josef Pieper / Juan Francisco Franck – Método y lenguaje en el pensamiento de Josef Pieper / Jean Lauand – Josef Pieper y Peter Wust / Juan Andrés Levermann – Aprobación creadora : un aspecto de la dimensión social del bien de la persona / Marisa Mosto – Josef Pieper y la reflexión sobre el mito y la cultura / Héctor Jorge Padrón – Josef Pieper y el tomismo medieval : la controversia sobre la creación / François-Xavier Putallaz – Algunas consideraciones sobre J. Pieper y el tema del mal en la problemática filosófica contemporánea / Juan Pablo Roldán – Josef Pieper y la acedia : la causa afectiva de ciertas deformaciones intelectuales / El hombre de ocio : parásito o transformador del mundo / Bernard N. Schumacher – La templanza en Josef Pieper y Santo Tomás / Zelmira Seligmann – El ideal del trabajo en Josef Pieper / Ludovico Antonio Videla – Valor para la realidad – Valor para la persona : reafirmación cristiana como crítica de la cultura en la obra temprana de Josef Pieper / Berthold Wald – Notas y comentarios -- Bibliografía

O estrangeiro que não estava lá

Leitura da narrativa O estrangeiro, de Albert Camus, e da narrativa fílmica O homem que não estava lá, dos irmãos Ethan Coen e Joel Coen, com vistas a propor uma reflexão literária sobre o desconcerto do sujeito num mundo de solidão, indiferença e nonsense existencial. Oriundas do esmaecimento de qualquer sentimento diante da inexorabilidade da consciência da finitude, pelo comparatismo e com apoio no conceito de intertextualidade, são passadas em revista as trajetórias contingentes de Ed Crane − protagonista da obra cinematográfica − e Meursault, personagem central do romance camusiano. Luz e sombra potencializam a aterradora atmosfera de absurdo na qual se desequilibra Ed Crane, em sua existência obscura, em contraponto com a claridade reinante no percurso de Meursault. Ambos os personagens são condenados pela sociedade, de maneira insólita e definitiva, por intermédio de textos que denunciam, outrossim, a engrenagem trágica do sistema judiciário, permitindo-nos conectar os citados personagens, Plume Um certo Plume, de Henri Michaux e Joseph K. angústia errante engendrada por Franz Kafka em O processo

"L'homme révolté" à l'aube du troisième millénaire

En se penchant sur L’homme révolté d’Albert Camus, ce mémoire entend évaluer la pertinence de la révolte camusienne à l’aube du troisième millénaire. Du constat de l’absurde quant à la condition existentielle de l’homme, Camus a esquissé une révolte affranchie de toute idéologie en démontant, entre autres, les mécanismes propres à la philosophie de l’histoire et au nihilisme. À partir de la critique des pensées hégélienne, nietzschéenne et marxienne, il a tenté de définir les caractéristiques inhérentes à la révolte. Rédigé au milieu du XXe siècle, L’homme révolté est marqué par les séquelles d’une histoire chaotique déjà plus que cinquantenaire. Pour autant, son propos semble être encore d’actualité. Avec la complicité de philosophes contemporains tels que Cornélius Castoriadis, Pierre Rosanvallon et Bernard Stiegler, c’est autant la pertinence de la révolte camusienne qui est ici considérée qu’une corrélation entre cette révolte et la dignité humaine. L’homme révolté a-t-il encore sa place en ce début du troisième millénaire et dans l’affirmative : quelle est cette place?

Vers un cinéma de l'absurde : les films de Roman Polanski

La notion de l'absurde a pris dans la pensée et le langage courant un très grand nombre de significations, parfois très éloignées les unes par rapport aux autres. Il est arrivé à au moins deux reprises que le terme « absurde » soit entendu dans le sens d'un courant : dans la philosophie absurde théorisée par Albert Camus en 1942, et dans le Théâtre de l'absurde (Beckett, Ionesco, etc.), qui lui a connu son apogée dans les années cinquante. Ces deux mouvements pourraient être envisagés comme l'expression d'un seul et même courant, l'absurde, qui prend ses racines dans une Europe ébranlée par les horreurs de la guerre et l'affaissement de la religion chrétienne. Pour les contemporains, l'hostilité et le désordre de l'univers, de même que la solitude irrémédiable de l'individu apparaissent comme des vérités à la fois douloureuses et difficile à ignorer. Roman Polanski (1933-), cinéaste à la fois prolifique et éclectique, ouvre à l'absurde de nouveaux horizons, ceux du septième art. L'analyse de son oeuvre (et des éléments autobiographiques qui la sous-tendent parfois) met à jour d'indéniables parentés avec les figures-clés de l'absurde que sont Camus, Kafka, Nietzsche et les dramaturges européens de l'après-guerre. Ces parentés se repèrent tout autant dans les thématiques récurrentes de ses films que dans leurs obsessions formelles.

El sentido de la vida.

Se realiza una experiencia educativa en el aula de Bachillerato para reflexionar sobre la existencia humana. Entre otras actividades, se propone la redacción de un epitafio; se analizan seis textos que aúnan filosofía y literatura: Los hermanos Karamazov, de Fiodor Dostoievski; El Manifiesto comunista, de Karl Marx; Utopía, de Tomás Moro; La náusea, de Jean Paul Sartre; La Peste, de Albert Camus; y el relato 'El otro', integrado en El libro de arena, de Jorge Luis Borges. La clase se divide en seis grupos y cada uno de ellos trabaja el texto del autor que le ha correspondido, desvelando el sentido de la existencia humana. Seguidamente, cada grupo expone oralmente el trabajo mediante un resumen del texto y las frases más significativas del autor; responden a las preguntas del profesor; elaboran un cuestionario sobre los aspectos más relevantes del texto; y relacionan el enfoque del fragmento trabajado con algunas de las perspectivas del marco teórico general. Al finalizar, cada alumno realiza una disertación filosófica escrita sobre el sentido de la existencia humana.

Reflexiones sobre la educación : comentario a un libro.

La obra que se analiza se titula Reflexions sobre lïeducació, del padre catalán Octavio Fullat. Es una de las pocas obras sobre educación que se publican en España. Se espera que sea traducida al castellano. El autor es joven y poco conocido, pero posee una gran formación. Ha escrito la tesis doctoral La moral atea de Albert Camus, y es ayudante de una cátedra en la Universidad de Barcelona. La obra que nos ocupa aporta una información muy rica, y unas reflexiones e hipótesis sobre la educación, con un fondo filosófico. Se divide en dos partes. La primera se titula Teoría o contemplación y consta de cuatro capítulos. La segunda es Poética o realización, y tiene nueve capítulos. Alguno de los principales aspectos que aborda son la crisis de la educación actual, la caída definitiva del humanismo cristiano a finales del siglo XIX y su sustitución por el existencialismo, el marxismo etc. En definitiva estamos ante una rica reflexión sobre la educación que se asienta sobre un trasfondo histórico y filosófico complejo.

Tercer Congreso Internacional para el Latín Vivo : se celebró del 3 al 6 de septiembre en Estrasburgo, con asistencia de Profesores de veinticuatro países.

Introducción en español. Textos en español, francés y latín. Artículos : Le Latin et la Communication scientifique / H. des Abbayes.p. 1258-1263. Non sufficit Latinum sermonem inter doctos communem esse / Clement Desessar. p. 1263-1267. De novis methodis linguas docendi / Goodwin B. Beach. p. 1267-1272. Latinus sermo omnium scientiae rerum magnarum atque artium utilis / Vandick L. da Nobrega. p. 1272-1274. Ut Latina lingua vivat et vincat, libertas et concordia sunt maxime necessaria / Ricardo Avallone. p. 1274-1277. Vocabulorum collocatio quantum ad brevitatem et subtilitatem linguae latinae proficiat / Albert Grisart. p. 1278-1285. Letture Latine / Enrica Malcovati. p. 1285-1293. Textes latins et Latin vivant / René Fohalle. p. 1294-1305. Del valor educativo de los textos latinos / Karl Büchner. p. 1305-1314. La position présente du latin en Grèce : une réaction contre la décadence / Th. S. Tsannetatos. p. 1314-1315. La situation des langues classiques dans l'enseignement français / Robert Schilling. p. 1316-1320. La stylistique d'Albert Camus et la tradition latine / Alain Michel. p. 1320-1323. Cur et quomodo usus est Sienkiewicz Polonus lingua latina in opere suo polonice scripto cui titulus Trilogjia est / Jean B. Neveux. p. 1323. De Sebastiano Brant argentoratensi nobili scriptore restituendo / José Jiménez Delgado. p. 1324-1334. Votos del Tercer Congreso Internacional de Latín Vivo : Estrasburgo, 2-4 septiembre 1963. p. 1334-1335

Collapse

Collapse was a visual performance installation presented at the Old Port of Melbourne in 2008. The audience travelled by boat across Port Phillip Bay to witness the performance begins at Sciencework’s Spotswood Jetty, where the audience travelled by ferry across the Port Phillip Bay to a remote location, where society has “collapsed”. The performance then becomes a walking tour around this new location, encountering and experiencing the world that Red Cabbage has created.

“At that point…the collapse of their morale, their will power and their patience was so abrupt that they felt they would never be able to climb back out of their hole…Hence, floundering halfway between the abyss and the peak, they drifted rather than lived, given up to aimless days and sterile memories, wandering shadows who could have only found strength by resigning themselves to taking root in the soil of their distress.”- Albert Camus The Plague

Floundering halfway between the abyss and the peak…exist those that have not yet fallen…in a state of recurring collapse. The girl in the yellow dress, the man in the grey suit, the old man in the brown pants, the woman in the blue shirt and the man in the red hat are suspected carriers of the white sickness. They have been removed from their homes to the edge of the city for standard assessment. Here they meet the others, processed…waiting…isolated. By boat…they travel across the bay to their final destination. Not another Hollywood style apocalyptic melodrama in which our heroes find grace, hope and redemption in the utter destruction of modern civilization…in the collapse of lived time the ruins of humanity are exposed as already existent…the limits of our ability to be graceful were discovered long ago…the trauma of the end of time a given…the plague is now.

Meursault (and Caligula) avec de sade: on the relations between the literary absurds and Camus’s philosophical discourses

This article considers the relation between L'Etranger and Caligula, with Camus' philosophical discourse. It aims at mediocra firma between the idea that the literary 'absurds' just illustrate Camus' philosophy; and the idea that they are wholly autonomous from that philosophy. Following threads from Camus' own responses to Melville, du Gard and others, we argue that Meursault and the crazed emperor Caligula are not illustrations of the absurd, let alone Camusian ethical ideals. They embody 'temptations' to forms of philosophical suicide and murder Camus systematically opposed in his philosophical writings, whose paradigm in The Rebel is the Marquis de Sade. Rather than rebelling against the unjust irrationality of the world, these figures (either passively or actively) become agents of this irrationality. Camus the man, or his thinking, should not be identified with them, as such, any more than Shakespeare should be identified with his Iago, or sundry other villains.

A construção existencial dos direitos humanos

Pós-graduação em Direito - FCHS