Introduction to Sartre and Camus' Absurdity Theory

Sartre and Camus are two constellations of French existentialism in the 20th century, and they are also regarded as important symbols of European modernist literature in the 20th century. Sartre and Camus both have legendary life experiences, full of distinctive personality characteristics and personality charm. What is particularly striking is that they are all Nobel Prize in Literature laureates, and they have made great achievements in philosophy, literature and other fields, and made great contributions to the progress of human spirit. Perhaps because of this, the last bad relationship between Sartre and Camus was mentioned and discussed by later scholars. In fact, there are great differences between Sartre and Camus in life experience, creative style and philosophical thought, which eventually leads to friendship becoming an enemy. Today, we are going to discuss this difference. We have no intention of making moral comments, but only want to arouse some meaningful thoughts.

Sartre was born in a naval officer's family in Paris, which is a prominent family. Sartre lost his father at the age of two and lived with his mother in his grandfather's house since childhood. His grandfather is a famous scholar, and his family has a large collection of books. Sartre never had to worry about material life, and he developed a good habit of concentrating on reading at an early age. The family study life in childhood is closely related to Sartre's rigorous philosophical thought foundation that later became a philosopher. 1924, 19-year-old Sartre successfully entered Paris Normal University, the highest institution in France, and won the first place in the national middle school philosophy teacher qualification examination with the score of 1929, and finally got married with the second Beauvoir. Here mentioned Beauvoir, the author thinks that Beauvoir, called "Beaver" by Sartre, has something to do with Sartre's achievements. Since then, Sartre has published a large number of philosophical and literary works, including Imagination (1936), Nausea (1938) and The Wall (1939). These works gradually formed and concretely explained Sartre's atheistic existential philosophy system. Similarly, in view of Sartre's early growth, we can understand why Sartre, on the one hand, has a keen philosophical vision, on the other hand, he entered social activities late (despite this, Sartre, who was forced to quit his study after World War II, still had a profound impact on a wide range of social activities with his firm political stance and distinctive personality style).

Compared with Sartre, the birth and growth of Camus is extremely tragic. Camus's father was a French refugee in exile in Algeria, and his father was also killed in the war when he was a teenager. Camus spent almost all his childhood and adolescence in slums. Camus was recognized as an orphan of war and completed his studies with the help of the government. Fortunately, Camus is not only brilliant, but also diligent and enterprising. He has been working since middle school to make money to solve the difficulties in life. In addition, the birth of tragedy and the experience of suffering teenagers prompted the precocious Camus to care for and participate in social and political activities earlier and care for and help the poor. These also had a far-reaching impact on Camus' later creation. Camus' most important works are: The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), novella The Outsider (1942), novel The Plague (1947) and prose collection The Rebel (195655). Later generations listed it as an existential philosophy system.

Camus has always been called an existentialist, but interestingly, he himself has always firmly denied being an existentialist, insisting that he is the creator of liberalism and does not belong to any faction. In fact, objectively speaking, Sartre's and Camus' works are very different in both literary style and philosophical proposition.

From the overall reading experience, Sartre's literary works are full of profound philosophical thinking and opinions, which are generally heavy, gloomy and difficult to read. Camus's literary works are worthy of being the model of western modernist literature, with beautiful writing, fluent language and rich feelings. The author's sensitive thinking and deep feelings often come from paper, which makes people touch and even cry. Below, let's take the most important literary works of the two writers as an example to introduce them.

Sartre's novel Nausea first expounds a basic proposition of Sartre's existentialism in literary style: existence without essence is nothingness. Luo Gangdan, the hero, wandered around the city all day, doing nothing, wandering around and killing time in restaurants and cafes-facing this empty world and life, Luo Gangdan only felt "disgusting". However, Sartre finally deepened his philosophy with the help of the hero's consciousness of "disgusting feeling": if you want to find liberation in this absurd world, you can only create it through "self-action" as the essence of human existence.

The short story "The Wall" and the drama "The Humble Prostitute" (1946) further explain another basic viewpoint of Sartre's existentialism philosophy: the essential difference between people and things is "absolute free choice". Sartre emphasized in his famous philosophical lecture "Existentialism is a Humanism" 65438-0946: "Even if you don't choose, it is a choice". According to Sartre's point of view, since people are absolutely free and free choice exists absolutely, then people should be responsible for their own choices. Otherwise it can't be called a man. For example, Pablo's unconscious words in "The Wall" actually betrayed his comrades-in-arms-thus, Lisa deliberately pointed out the absurdity of the world itself. But people must take full responsibility for their choices in the absurd world and bear all the consequences. Another example is Lise, a prostitute in The Obedient Prostitute, who betrayed innocent blacks under authoritarian pressure and racial discrimination. In the end, the price of Lise is to be a plaything in the hands of the prodigal Flat.

Author: Don't laugh at the madness of the world 2008-12-1812: 50 Reply to this speech.

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2 Sartre and Camus reposted

Among Sartre's literary works, the one-act play "Confinement" (1945) (also translated as "Independent Interrogation") is the most famous, profound and easily misunderstood. The plot unfolds between three ghosts in hell. Garcin, the hero, said that "others are hell". Sartre himself was criticized for this, accusing his existentialism of being ruthless, cruel and inhuman. In fact, this is an extreme misunderstanding of Sartre. On the contrary, Sartre's "others are hell" is aimed at people's choice. In short, if people can't be honest with each other correctly, then others are another person's hell. In response to the public's criticism of existentialism, Sartre said in his book "Existentialism is a kind of humanitarianism": "Existentialism is the least grandstanding philosophy and the least artificial philosophy".

We can say that Sartre's literary works emphasize the nothingness of life, while Camus's literary works focus on the absurdity of the world. The Myth of Sisyphus illustrates Camus' absurd understanding of the world in the form of philosophical essays for the first time. Finally, with the help of Sisyphus's punishing behavior of endlessly pushing boulders, it states that the most important thing in life is not existence itself, but how to exist. For people, the noblest thing is not only to exist, but to have the courage to bear all kinds of suffering and pain in the absurd world and always pursue light and freedom with passion. Sisyphus is an absurd hero in the absurd world.

In the novella The Outsider, Musso's indifference and numbness declared another way to fight against the absurd world. In this absurd world, Musso is an awakened person. He realized the absurdity of the world and human existence itself, so he resisted the absurdity as an "outsider" divorced from life. Therefore, Merso has a firmer positive significance than Sisyphus.

Camus' novel Plague can be said to be the final crystallization of Camus' philosophical thought. Camus enthusiastically praised the friendship, mutual assistance, care and loyalty between people in the absurd world (the plague strikes in the novel). This novel is written with sincere feelings and vivid plots, which shows Camus' rich inner world, sensitivity to suffering and love for the weak.

The difference of philosophical thoughts finally led to the parting ways between Sartre and Camus, which is a regret in the history of human emotions, but on the other hand, this hostility is not caused by personal grievances, but also a story in the history of human society. From the above part of this paper, we can see many differences between the two thinkers, but the deepest one is philosophy.

First of all, as mentioned above, Sartre and Camus both think that the world is absurd. The difference is that Sartre also believes that in the face of the absurd world, people can do nothing, and what people can change is their own way of existence as a free existence. For Camus, the world is really absurd, but human beings are "resisting". It was his collection of essays "The Rebel" that directly led to the public breakup with Sartre. Camus believes that the only way out for people in an absurd environment is to resist and preach "pure resistance". Camus strongly opposed the so-called "historical resistance", that is, opposed the use of violence and advocated spiritual and moral struggle. So although Camus admired Marxism, he strongly criticized the Russian revolution, such as. As we all know, Sartre spoke highly of the socialist revolutions in Russia and China. This is one of their main differences.

In addition, another difference between Sartre and Camus is that Sartre does not recognize the existence of so-called human nature. Sartre believes that since "existence precedes essence", there is no so-called "universal humanity". People should never rely on others, because there is no eternal love, only love that is being created. Sartre always emphasized individual freedom of action and absolute responsibility. And we can see from Camus' Plague that Camus' praise for the beauty of human nature comes from the heart. He believes that in the face of the absurd world, the strength of the individual is insignificant, and only when all mankind unite can we win the victory against the absurd world.

On the third day after Camus died in an unfortunate car accident in 1960, Sartre published a touching mourning article, which wrote: "I once fell out with him and turned against him. But even if the two sides never meet again, it's nothing. It's just another way to live together in a small world that belongs to us. Everyone knows who's going on, which doesn't prevent me from missing him. " "Camus will always be one of the main forces in our cultural field and will always represent the history of France and the world in his way."

The friendship and memory of great men are awesome.

Among the tens of thousands of followers of 1980 Sartre's funeral, one praised Sartre like this: Sartre's death made me feel that a light of human wisdom went out. This man was then French President D 'Estaing.

Surprisingly, Sartre chose to refuse to cooperate with any government for life. He strongly opposed capitalism, took to the streets to participate in the "May Storm" student parade in France, and publicly declared that "socialism will definitely replace capitalism".

The tolerant attitude of the French government towards a great and rebellious thinker is also worthy of our social consideration.

The dead are immortal. Because of its Excellence.