The reading for this week covers two sections of the text.
The first, titled “Philosophical Suicide”, is a diagnosis of the “vague nostalgias” that Camus believes permeate the thinking of many prominent “existentialist” philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers, and others.
The second, titled “Absurd Freedom”, presents three positive consequences that Camus believes to logically follow from the absurd.
The first section is much more difficult than the second and is largely a detour into skirmishing with several prominent philosophers’ responses to the absurd and related existential questions.
I will be skipping over it in this guide and focus instead on Camus’ positive claims presented in the section titled “Absurd Freedom”.
By the end of this reading, Camus reaches some definite conclusions.
Let’s start with them and work backwards.
Remember that Camus is simply positioning himself as logically drawing out the conclusions for life that follow from the absurd. For example,
“Thus I…
