Albert Camus :: Biography

Albert CamusBorn on November 7, 1913 in Mandoui, Algeria, Albert Camus earned aworldwide reputation as a novelist and essayist and won the Nobel Prize forliterature in 1957. Though his writings, and in some measure against his will,he became the leading moral voice of his propagation during the 1950s. Camusdied at the height of his fame, in an automobile accident near Sens, France onJanuary 4, 1960.Camuss deepest philosophical interests were in Western philosophy,among them Socrates, Pascal, Spinoza, and Nietsche. His interest in philosophywas close to exclusively moral in character. Camus came to the conclusion thatnone of the speculative systems of the past tense could provide and positive guidancefor human life or both guarantee of the validity of human value. Camus alsoconcluded that suicide is the but serious philosophical problem. He askswhether it makes any sense to go on living once the built in bed of humanlife is fully understood.Camus referred to this meaninglessness as the absurdity of life. Hebelieved that this absurdity is the failure of the world to accomplish the humandemand that it provide a basis for human values-for our personalized ideals and forour judgments of right and wrong. He maintained that suicide cannot beregarded as an seemly response to the experience of absurdity. He says thatsuicide is an entrance of incapacity, and such an admission is inconsistentwith that human pride to which Camus openly appeals. Camus states, there isnothing liken to the spectacle of human pride.Furthermore, Camus also dealt with the topic of revolution in his essayThe Rebel. Camus rejected what he calls metaphysical revolt, which he sees as