Essays on Absurdity

René Magritte's oil on canvas painting The Son of Man (1964) has become a very popular visual text in a short period of time. The symbolism and unusual and enigmatic create a holistic picture of the semantic code that every viewer tries to interpret. Although the canvas contains a fairly small number of different details, as contrasted with Bosch or Rubens' paintings, yet there is a deep consisting of several layers meaning in it. The painting contains a number of visual symbols, which have already become some kind of the archetypes of modern society. The Son of Man (see ...

Part One

Phillis Wheatley was an eighteenth century poet born in West Africa and was enslaved on American soil in 1761. Despite her slave status, Wheatley had received an unprecedented education on classicism, Christianity, and literature. Wheatley wrote two significant letters, the first was to her fellow servant friend from the Tanner’s estate in 1772. The letter had discussed her enthusiasm for Christianity and her positive view towards her African heritage. The following letter in 1774 was directed to Rev. Occom in appreciation for the reverend’s argument against treatment towards African people. Her writing often included Biblical references as ...

Faith, being an intangible concept, is almost indefinable. But there are theologians, like Soren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich, who dared to define faith and its role in everyday life. There are similarities and differences between the interpretation of Kierkegaard and Tillich of faith, and some critics are not contented with or opposed to their ideas, particularly as regards the subject-object division. This paper argues that a thorough, critical analysis of the ideas of Kierkegaard and Tillich regarding faith will demonstrate both theologians remaining devoted to the conflict between the finite world and the infinite, unbounded realm. Kierkegaard often emphasizes ...

People are so absorbed with the peculiarity of the unknown in that some people strive to become artists specializing in these trades just to become famous. Franz Kafka, in his short story, A Hunger Artist, successfully satirizes the cycle of people’s waning curiosity and interest in the mundane and the subsequent artists who do these things for fame. Kafka’s story shows a critical ridicule of this cycle in an act contradictory to the purpose of a way of living through the hunger artist and his act of fasting. The intention of distinguishing oneself from his peers has ...

Countless debates have ensued concerning the supposed importance of how life began, why it was created, and of course if it has any fundamental purpose. Some would argue that life has no meaning, that it is a randomized hodgepodge of experiences that when placed together create the sum of a life. Others would claim that there is meaning behind every experience, a driving goal that allows an individual to keep going when it would be easier to stop. Whether it is because of personal belief or fundamental truths that can be measured and verified the meaning of life remains ...

Perhaps the predominant turn in philosophy since the end of the First World War has been a move toward an adoption of the absurd. Before that war, there was more of a universalist approach to the world, but the events between 1914 and 1918, accelerated by the events between 1929 and 1945, took those universalist elements and dropped them squarely on their heads. Before 1914, even war was kind of a civilized affair, with warring armies frequently taking off Christmas, or even the entire winter; the Christmas truce during the First World War would be the last of its ...

Introduction

It’s called a fugue state. A fugue state is characterized by a complete removal from, or interruption of, a person’s identity and a personal history. A fugue state is not always permanent, but during the episode, a person can completely forget who they are, and can assume a completely new identity for themselves. Usually, the fugue state isn’t even diagnosed until a person can recall their identity after the fugue state has ended (Costandi). This is a perfect metaphor for Death Fugue, a novel by Sheng Keyi. In her novel, she explores the events related to ...

Two of the most important existential philosophers have been Albert Camus, well known for both his novels and his philosophy, and Jean Paul Sartre, who, is aligned with the ideas of existentialism more than any other philosopher. In addition to sharing some ideas about existentialism (although both men also developed very different systems of this philosophy), both thinkers were atheists, and developed their systems of philosophy, from their belief in a world, or a universe without god. For Camus, the absence of god was one of the reasons why man could find the nature of existence meaningless, and his ...

Abstract

Most people find it hard to get the real meaning of an argument and therefore they tend to misinterpret it whenever they come across it. They give different meanings of an argument which might end up confused people. In this paper, the significance of an argument will come out clearly whether it is taking an extreme position and standing our ground or it is a way of convincing our audience by taking the reasonable stance in and sticking to our position. This paper also talks about internet reliability as a source of information and why the information is necessary. ...

Both Satre and Camus, important and famous French philosophers of the middle of the 20th century explored various facets of what may be called existentialist philosophy. Sartre grounded his work by focusing on the concept, and practice, of human freedom, While Camus approached existentialism from a tension between absurdity and the meaning of making choices and commitment. While both philosophers worked in very different areas of the wide branch of philosophy known as existentialism, both Camus and Sartre build their systems on the foundation of a life, or universe, without any divine force, and certainly without the idea of ...

Brief Summary

Argument strategies are the ways in which an individual presents his arguments or justifications. Even though some arguments are just mere deduction and generalizations that are based on the daily life experiences, people still need to be tactful while presenting these arguments. Furthermore, there are several argument strategies that people can put into practice while presenting their arguments or justifications. Nonetheless, a clear understanding of these argument strategies is likely to do an individual more good than evil. Individuals with such knowledge are likely to argue more clearly and effectively. Basically, there are four major argument strategies, that is, ...

'Midnight Cowboy' is a drama film of 1969 based on the novel 'Midnight Cowboy' by James Leo Herlihy. 'The American Friend' is a 1977 movie by Wim Wenders, loosely basing its themes on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, 'Ripley’s Game.' 'Midnight Cowboy' and 'The American Friend' reflects the events in the society during the time. They both fit perfectly towards the depiction of the ‘counter culture’ film movement of the 1970’s. Through their themes and character representation, the two movies give a strong challenge to genre conventions thus enabling them to successfully depict the counter-culture period in ...

Theater of the absurd is an idea that started gaining relevance in the 1950s. The concept is essentially informed by the ideas of absurdism and existentialism. Their prominent trait includes having irrational plots that feature characters who seem to lack peace with their existence. This new style in the playwrights came out as controversial and amazing. Authors embracing this style mainly present the human’s state as futile. This is in line with the philosophical perspectives such as the ones presented by Albert Camus that insisted human being can only be in the position of exploiting their full potential ...

The novel "The Stranger" by Albert Camus is one of the most important and popular of his works. It has a direct connection with the philosophy of existentialism and the absurd like most of the works of the author. The writer once again demonstrates the human and social relationships, as well as the internal conflict of the man himself by the example of the protagonist's life and feelings. The problem of the story touches upon many issues, but one of the main problems is the existence of God. The life of the protagonist Meursault is the way to truth ...

First of all, it should be stated that Oxford Learner`s Dictionaries web-site suggests the following definitions for the word “process”: The flow, course, progress of a phenomenon. The set of sequential actions, aimed at achieving a certain result.

The active development of a disease.

The procedure of trial in a court and administrative proceedings. At the first glance, the third meaning of the word, namely “the trial”, seems to be more in line with the content of the novel. However, there are two more meanings, and if you think well, you will find even more. Moreover, at the last page of his novel, ...

Rule and Approaches used by Judges when Interpreting an Act of Parliament

The statutory interpretation might be necessary in the case of complexity and when uncertainty concerning the Acts made by Parliament is required. The complexities that might occur as a result of an Act of Parliament include the "what section provides" and "within the provision" complexities. As a result of these complexities, the judges are called upon to interpret the Acts of Parliament before becoming laws to clear the mischief concerning such acts of parliament. When the judges interpret the acts of parliament, it makes the public have trust in such enacted laws. There are several instances that might be ...

A Modest Proposal was written in the 18th century by Jonathan Swift and the proposal he makes in this essay is not real, but satirical. Swift was mocking the way the British dealt with Irish people. His proposal about using babies for food is very original and it deals with the nature of people who are cruel and who cannot find a good way to take care of the well-being of the citizens. This essay contains a lot of irony and this pamphlet is political because it criticizes British rule. The British government proved to be uncivilized and there ...

Philosophy final

- What are Descartes’ arguments for Cartesian dualism? Do you find them persuasive? If you do not, do you endorse monism, or not? Explain your answer.

In the dualism, Descartes attempts to solve the problem of mind and body. Descartes contrast the mind and the body that the two exist separately. He believes that human beings have two properties, the physical and the mental properties (Stanford encyclopedias of philosophy, all). The physical properties are those that can be attributed to the physical sciences. For examples, size, height and weight, color, shape, and motion in space, among others. On ...

The world of literature has always intrigued one and all with the sheer quintessence of art and aesthetics. The readers from all the corners of the globe have been immersed in the aesthetic charm and affective appeal of the literary works of the literary artists who have proved their genius though their unparalleled portraiture and content that have left an immortal mark in the very innermost core of thee hearts of the avid readers. The history of literature goes on to document the works of many such stalwarts who have left the readers stirred to the core. James Joyce ...

These three essays deal with vastly different topics. The first essay, entitled “Back to Square One” is less of an essay, and more of a creative writing piece; it follows the life of a family living in Tijuana, Mexico. The family is well-to-do, and lives in a nice, secluded house on a hillside outside of the city. The husband of the family is a policeman, in charge of the anti-corruption and anti-drug unit of the local police, and the mother is a stay-at-home housewife responsible for the care of their young daughter. Both the mother and the father are living in fear over potential ...

Question 1

Religion is an overarching theme in the Stranger. The antagonist, Meursault, in this novel is an atheist. He does not believe in the existence of God. He believes that the world is shaped and is as a result of fate. Meursault finds it difficult that there is the existence of a supernatural being that controls the world. The theme of religion is brought about in various sections of the plot in this novel. One of the main sections of the plot where the theme of religion is brought is during the funeral of Meursault mother. Meursault does not show any remorse ...

DISCUSSION ONE

McCloskey indicates several times in his article, “On Being an Atheist”, that the arguments provided in a classical dimension in regard to existence of God, referred as “proof” do not provide an assurance or an absolute certain in relation to his existence. He supports his argument with teleological as well as cosmological proofs that have been used to argue that God exists and he is all-powerful, all knowing and all-perfect. According to McCloskey, theists, specifically Christians have use these dimensions of classical proofs to argue that God is all-knowing and all-perfect, however, they have failed to provide evidence ...

“There is reason that all things are as they are” (Stoker). In the written works of Dracula and The Metamorphosis, the authors use two very different styles to portray horrifying fantasy. In Dracula, Bram Stoker uses realism in the form of journal entries, letters, ships’ logs, and newspaper articles to tell the story of the vampire Count Dracula. In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka uses surrealism in the form of third person narrative, to tell the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes one day to find he has been transformed overnight into a huge, disgusting bug. Although the authors employ different ...

In this quote Sartre reveals the main ideas of the existentialism movement. According to the philosopher, a person has influence on what he or she will be in the future. This means that an individual is responsible for creating his own inner world. Existentialists believe that nurture is more important than nature for the personal development. Furthermore, existence comes before essence. A person should define essence by him or herself. Also, Sartre states that life is hard and a person would encounter pain and constant struggling with many obstacles. However, it is the only way of defining a person and his or ...

The meaning of life has been one of the most significant questions that humankind has asked itself. Throughout history, different cultures have given various answers, from myths, to religion and science. After Nietzsche’s proclamation of the death of God, philosophers started asking themselves what they were on this planet for, giving rise to the Existentialist movement. Attempting to answer this question some saw that it did not have a verifiable response, concluding that human life was actually absurd. However, not everyone interpreted this word in the same way. Albert Camus was one of its most famous proponents, believing that ...

French comedy, like comedy of any specific region, has a wide range of subjects and styles from which to draw – some comedies rely more on the physical and slapstick, while others relate more to character-based humor and the everyday absurdity of human interaction. Two French comedies from the 90s and early 2000s encapsulate this divide quite well – 1993’s Les Visiteurs and 2000’s Le Gout des Autres (The Taste of Others). Visiteurs is a goofy, fantastical fish-out-of-water story about a knight and his squire (played by Jean Reno and co-writer Christian Clavier), who find themselves transported from 1123 to 1993 France ...

In the Apocalypse Now (movie 1979), Captain Willard played the role of the protagonist in this film. He was a passive character. The main target of was to kill Kurtz. He spent of most of his time in the film watching keenly and internalizing the activities taking place in the jungle. Captain helps to bring out the ironical perspectives of war while at the same time incorporating the theme of morality in the film. His observant nature enabled him to become alert on absurdities of the war and the darkness of the human nature. He clearly brought out how the ...

Moral luck emerges when one is treated well or praised regardless of the fact that the outcome of what has led him or her to be praised is dependent on other factors that are beyond his or her control. (Thomas, N. 1979) & (Williams B. 1993) Thomas Nagel in his article of “Moral Luck” (1979) noted that in our day to day activities, moral blame and moral praise are influenced to a greater extent intuitively. He gave an example of two reckless drivers where one causes an accident and the other does not. The fact the driver who has caused ...

Existentialism is a movement in both philosophy and literature that highlights the importance of individual freedom and choices. According to the philosophy of existentialism, some events or occurrences that happen with a person are irrational or absurd having no explanation for that. They believe that there are no universal guidelines to follow as well as there is no objective form of truth. Therefore, existentialism is based on one’s choices, decisions that are unique and unchangeable. The philosophers of existentialism argue that human choice is a subjective matter, because individuals are supposed to make choices without external influence of societal standards (ethical ...

(Institute affiliation) In this paper I will be discussing Joan Didion’s essay written on grief. Joan Didion begins by speaking about grief that a human being feels at the loss of a loved one. Didion speaks about there being two types of grief – one is the actual grief that we feel, the other being the one in our mind. The actual feeling of grief comes from the heart whereas the made up version is all in the head. She expresses her feelings by saying that grief actually strikes a person after the event has occurred and during other times the ...

Absurdism as a worldview theory is a part of the philosophy of existentialism; and as the fundamental philosophical concept it was firstly developed in the work of Albert Camus “The Myth of Sisyphus”. As a system of philosophical views, it claims the lack of meaning of human life (the absurdity of life existence). According to the absurdism, people have been trying to find the meaning of existence throughout their history. Traditionally, these attempts have ended in one of two ways: man has come to the conclusion that all life is senseless or he has started to understand that everything is predetermined by ...

Absurdity of human existence is a hard philosophical question. The problem of absurdity of human existence arises from the point of view that the universe is meaningless and there is nothing in the world worth living. According to existentialism the tragedy of human existence is that people are like abandoned in the world of physical pleasures. They don't know how to live in the world, aware of the impermanence of existence. In this essay I would like to highlight Albert Camus’, Richard Taylor’s and Thomas Nagel’s points of view on absurdity of human existence. Even though ...

Camus’ “The Stranger” is brilliantly as it crafts Camus’s absurdist view of the world. The novel came out in 1942, and tells the story of Meursault’s , an emotionally detached, but amoral young man. Meursault does not believe in God. Camus shows the main character’s callous nature as he does not cry at his mother’s funeral and he kills a man he hardly knows. Due to his crime, the society sees Meursault as a threat to the society, and as such, he faced death. Nevertheless, he comes to understand the simple coldness of the world. He eventually finds ...

It appears that McCloskey is trying to support and substantiate his case for atheism by adopting a very narrow and objective approach. The usage of terms like “proof” for different school of arguments indicates that McCloskey is keen to give a sense of finality to a very complex question by attempting to debunk the thought process behind the arguments that has been labeled as proof. Human mind has its own limitations. This universe is very complex and infinite. There are a lot of things which are beyond the comprehension of human mind. The question of existence of god is one such question that ...

Anti-hero is a literary term that entered in literature in 19th century with Dostoevsky and its usage has flourished since then into the second half of the 20th century. The term has been used to describe protagonist characters in Greek drama and stories. The idea of “hero” sets a base for the definition of an anti-hero. The number of anti-heroes in contemporary literature and the society are growing. Currently, the gap between the heroes and the anti-heroes is narrowing in terms of their moral codes, personality and value judgments. The narrowing of the gap could be caused by the sociological, political ...

‘The myth of Sisyphus,’ authored by Albert Camus, is a philosophical essay. This essay originally published in the year 1942 but became famous only after its translation into English from the French language. Camus, in this essay, presents an absurd man’s unsuccessful search of the god, truth as well as eternality. The author presents a thorough analysis of the absurd man’s struggle in a realistic manner. This paper intends to discuss the ideas that Camus mentions in his essays and further analyses other related aspects of the area under discussion. Camus explores several artistic creations and fictional writings as ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is one of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century. His philosophy influenced not only the various sections of philosophical knowledge, thereby extending its reach and scope, but also the development of such sciences as logic, mathematics, linguistics, the list of which is not complete. Moreover, if the twentieth century largely passed under the sign of the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche, in Wittgenstein's philosophy this century got its most profound understanding. It is all the more ironic that the philosopher did not leave a special essay on social philosophy and philosophy of history. ...

Faulkner remains one of America’s iconic writers still studied in higher education today for his style of writing engaging the reader in his characters. His characters in “As I Lay Dying” are no different in their challenge to the reader placing their symbolic meaning in the themes Faulkner incorporates in this story of a sequence of tragedies. “As I Lay Dying” exhibits an almost textbook example of a dysfunctional family of poor white Southerners on a farcical journey where the reader becomes familiar with the characters through Faulkner’s use of them several of them as the narrator of this tale. ...

English

Aimee Bender’s fictions are symbolic of human emotions and struggles largely analogized and formed through fairy-tale representations. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt is by and large in the same vein and is a collection of short stories that seems to suggest a narration by a teenage girl. On reading The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, in each of the short stories, the one common moral and that is one of trauma interlocked with pittance. The story about a young girl who comes home to find her dad carrying a backpack which seems to resemble a bag made of stones is intriguing. In the ...

Macintyre’s after good life philosophy exposed the state of modern moral opinions and discourse that has failed to be rational and the failure to admit the irrational nature. His view was that the enlightenment was detrimental to the morals as enshrined in the prehistoric times and that morals are not supposed to be exclusively subjective or tied to and individuals opinions. He held the basic Aristotle’s assumptions on man’s nature that he is the way he is and this is distinctly different from how man should be. Enlightenment does not offer any alternative that can replace ...

The courts play pivotal roles as far as justice is concerned in any given country. In addition to the implementation of law of the land, thy act as a link between the various arms of the government; hence the power balancing factor. Solving conflicts is one of the roles that have been solely accorded to courts. Among such conflicts is the interpretation of law, something that has become common in the modern society. In most civilized societies, law-making lies in the hands of parliament. However, sometimes parliament creates complex laws, and their meaning become a source of controversy because they tend ...

Voltaire’s was a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment whose most famous work is the novella Candide explores many of the popular schools of thoughts of the Enlightenment period. 1759, the year that Candide was first published was a time of great change of thought happening in Europe and the novel presents ideas found in three of the dominant school’s of thought, Rationalisms, Skepticism, and romanticism. By exploring these philosophies and showing how Candide treats them, we come to the conclusions that it was not Voltaire’s intent to support any of this particular schools of thought but to ...

When James Joyce was talking to a potential publisher of dubliners, he thought it would turn out to be just one section of Ireland’s moral history. Ulysses turned out to be much the same, in the form of a huge magnification of the ongoing argument that contains the frustrations of a broken heart and the awful clarity with which this Irish writer remembered, from the depths of exile, the specifics of a face that he could not forget. In Ulysses, what you get is some historical fiction showing the average lives of average dubliners thrown in high relief against he scenery of ...

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is the most well-known story by one of the renowned humorists in the United States, James Thurber. When the story was published, readers began to acknowledge and recognize Walter Mitty as an archetypal American figure. Walter Mitty has become a renowned character in American fiction as well. No doubt, the main reason that “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” became so popular was because Thurber made it possible for readers to identify with Mitty since most people often find their lives disappointing and ordinary, and so they enter a more interesting world by using daydreams. ...

The desire for a heavenly after life or immortality leads to boredom since in essence there is no real end to life. Life runs on an infinite timeline no matter our interests, habits or values. There is no climax to life no ‘grand exit’ or so to speak. Human beings are naturally inclined towards expectation and accomplishment which in essence bring about a sense of finality. Immortality or a heavenly life after death contradicts this finality concept which can be a strong motivator for greatness. Since life has no real end it loses its ‘kick’ and excitement fades away hence boredom. Their argument ...

English 215: Research and Writing

Should Taxes in People Making over $250,000 a Year be changed? Should Regulations for Home Schools be changed? The reason for selecting the topic is that several issues exist and continue to occur over time due to TSA regulations that are considered as outdated and some that do not address the critical measures of transportation security. These issues have immense overall negative implications to the transportation sector of the country because social and economic mobility are at stake in the issue. If issues pertaining to transportation are left unresolved, it will largely affect social mobilization capacity. For ...

In philosophy, the absurd describes the inability to find a meaning in life, and all people who try to find purpose in their lives will eventually fail. Life itself is not absurd, but when people are faced with existential questions, they inevitably face absurdity. In response, they can commit suicide, turn to religion for answers, or accept life and its absurdity as it is. Albert Camus claims suicide and recovery are the methods of dealing with the absurd once existential questions cause people to encounter it (“The myth of Sisyphus and other essays” 12). Other philosophers also agree with ...

I was wounded the one first time I considered Why are we here? When I wasn’t concern with The Meaning of Life, I was content. My comfortable state ignorance was reserving prayers for Christmas Eve, and Fantasy creatures peopling my imagination. I questioned nothing and accepted nearly anything for what it was. In short, I took the absurd seriously. Possibility was my rock. It would be the heaviest pebble I should ever keep as I experienced a moment too soon in my adolescence that there was no meaning in life. I became conscious. The adults around me lacked self-meaning, ...

Philosophy Questions

The main quotations which are evident and interesting in this text includes “though what we perform now were going to counts in many years, how could that maintain our current situations from being absurd?” This quotation simply tries to explain the view that absurdity fundamentally lies on the notion that anything we do will especially our actions matter in the near future. The next instrumental quote proposed by Nigel is that life is absurd since we ignore doubts which cannot be fulfilled, making them to continue living with almost uncontrollable carefulness despite all these doubts .the quotation thoroughly explains ...

Gyorgi Ligeti, John Cage and Toru Takemitsu

Gyorgi Ligeti, John Cage and Toru Takemitsu

INTRODUCTION

Piano is one of the most beautiful musical instruments we have to spill symphony in the air. There have been myriads of great pianists in history whose musical compositions bear testimony to the fact that piano can be used to create perfect melody for any mood, any emotion. This essay aims at elucidating three Piano works by three different composers from different countries of the world. The compositions namely The Devil’s Staircase, Cheap Imitation and Uninterrupted Rest by Gyorgi Ligeti, John Cage and Toru Takemitsu respectively have been chosen here for ...

Introduction

Metatheatre is a word that was first used by Lionel Abel in 1963; he introduced a new way of and look at post modern-drama, which at the very least adds more language to the to the ones that are usually spoken in theatres. The description of Meta itself constitutes a meaning describing above or after and about or upon. On the other hand, Samuel Beckett, an Irish Dramatist changed the traditional drama as shown in his work in “Waiting for Godot”. The change in his style was due to his dissatisfaction of the earlier dramatist. Beckett’s work featuring the characters Vladimir ...

Analysis of Nick Bottom from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nick Bottom, along with Puck, is one of the two characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream who are centrally involved with all three of the stories taking place throughout the play. He is a member of the Mechanicals, a group of fools who also work as craftsmen in Athens. They also perform plays for fun and are currently working on Pyramus and Thisbe, in the hopes that Duke Theseus would want to see the play on his wedding day, and be so moved by the performance that he would grand them sixpence each day into perpetuity. Bottom plays the lead ...

‘The rewards of a solitary life’ and ‘Constantly risking absurdity’ speaks of a solitary life led by particular individuals. The article by Mary Sarton discuses benefits of solitary life by asserting the ideas of self reliance and independence. In a similar manner, the poem Constantly Risking Absurdity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti talks of a solitary tight rope walker and stresses on the significance of individualism. The poem narrates that the acrobat is performing to achieve beauty and truth. This shows that he is not performing for others but for himself and again stresses on the importance of independent and self reliant behavior.

The above ...

Abstract

Strongly influenced by Freud’s theories about the structure and the workings of the human psyche, the surrealist movement dived deeply into the exploration of the unconscious – hoping to find the essence of the human mind and spirit in an alternative reality. Salvador Dali is one of the main representatives of this movement – his works constantly defied the boundaries of reality and imagination. He was a prolific artist, always in search of new ways of creative expression. Due to his personal background, he was always attracted to the world of fantasy, which made him very suitable for the surrealist movement. ...

Using Non-Human Primates for Medical Research

The emergence of various and unknown diseases paved the way for medical breakthroughs including the continuous research and development in finding the ultimate cure for the most severe medical cases. However, the success of medical research was obtained from perfecting formulas through several trials on non-human primates. The objective of medical researchers for using non-human primates is to test drug side effects and experiment on different formulas that will constitute the best results. Since humans are considered to have evolved from primate beginnings, medical researchers believe that the shared biological characteristics of humans ...

“The Plague” by Albert Camus is a meditative journey in which fulfillment shows that some kind of solace can be achieved by resisting absurd. Camus skillfully demonstrates that rebellion is not always completely futile and some instances of life are worth resistance. The main character of “The Plague” Dr. Rieux does not stop to struggle throughout the whole novel. Even after he loses his dearest people – his wife and best friend – Rieux cannot avoid making medical rounds that give him purpose with their “certitude”. (Camus, p. 238) Only when Rieux comes home to see his mother, he finds desired ...

Camus was a philosopher who debated absurdity and the meaning of life. His basic premise is that human life is absurd. According to him, the choices we make as humans about the lives we lead are verging on the ridiculous. He theorises, however, that the combination of human beings and the universe are what make both absurd. While Camus has some valid points within this topic, the only solution appears to be abolishing the application of reason to the universe, which is impossible to do due to the intrinsic connection between human beings and reason and, therefore, absurdity seems impossible ...

Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger offers a portrayal of a character who exemplifies the author’s philosophical notions of absurdity. Meursault is an automaton, whose existence bears little, if any, meaning, and whose actions resonate in an equally hollow purposelessness of being. Thus, Camus endeavored to portray, in a fictional work this time, his philosophy of the absurdity of human life, its utter lack of rational meaning and order. Meursault’s story is one of a man who agrees to die for the truth (cited in Sagi 90). Like everyone else around him, he was living in a make-believe world, where he created a ...

One of the more fascinating traits of humanity is the tendency to reflect, and to create art on the basis of that reflection. Even in the days before writing, cave paintings and the oral tradition of storytelling demonstrated the ways that people expressed their feelings – taking the time after winning, even if only briefly, the struggle against the demands of subsistence to leave a product behind, for posterity. Even the earliest recorded examples of literature, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, poignantly express the struggles that humanity faced when dealing with such abstractions as mortality and grief. Even the most ...

Writing as Social Therapy: Camus’ The Plague and Vergil’s Aeneid

Eric Blair attended secondary school at Eton, where he made a series of decisions that would affect not only his personal life, but also his future writing. Instead of working hard on his assignments and pursuing top marks, Blair decided instead to stop doing serious work and just do what he needed to get through. He did make a number of friends who would become influential in British letters, but he did not get the grades he would need to earn a university scholarship. Since his parents did not have the money to pay for his tuition, he went instead into the ...