Camus’ Literary Ethics: Between Form And Content

✍ Scribed by Grace Whistler

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 214
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book seeks to establish the relevance of Albert Camus’ philosophy and literature to contemporary ethics. By examining Camus’ innovative methods of approaching moral problems, Whistler demonstrates that Camus’ work has much to offer the world of ethics— Camus does philosophy differently, and the insights his methodologies offer could prove invaluable in both ethical theory and practice. Camus sees lived experience and emotion as ineliminable in ethics, and thus he chooses literary methods of communicating moral problems in an attempt to draw positively on these aspects of human morality. Using case studies of Camus’ specific literary methods, including dialogue, myth, mime and syntax, Whistler pinpoints the efficacy of each of Camus’ attempts to flesh-out moral problems, and thus shows just how much contemporary ethics could benefit from such a diversification in method.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
1 Camus the Philosopher?......Page 9
2 Philosophical Style: A Superficial Question?......Page 12
3 On the Possibility of a Literary Philosophy......Page 22
4 Camus’ Philosophy: Some Preliminary Reflections......Page 28
5 Camus’ Struggles with Rhetorical Form......Page 38
6 Chapter Conclusion......Page 43
7 Chapter Summary......Page 44
References......Page 51
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 55
2 Camus the Christian?......Page 56
3 ‘Dialogue Croyant-Incroyant’......Page 59
4 Faith in Nature......Page 64
5 Faith in Human Nature......Page 70
6 Christianity and La Chute......Page 72
7 Chapter Conclusion......Page 74
References......Page 78
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 81
2 Authenticity and the Form of Thought......Page 83
3 The Phenomenology of Passé Composé......Page 88
4 Doing Philosophy in Style......Page 92
5 Chapter Conclusion......Page 98
References......Page 102
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 104
2 Philosophy (and the World) as Fable......Page 106
3 Political Allegory and Abstraction as a Force of Nature......Page 109
4 Myth and the Metaphysics of L’Etranger......Page 114
5 The Existentialist and the City of Salt......Page 116
6 Chapter Conclusion......Page 121
References......Page 124
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 127
2 Monology and Dialogy......Page 129
3 Dialogic Ethics......Page 133
4 Didactic Dialogues......Page 136
5 Failures of Dialogue......Page 140
6 Chapter Conclusion......Page 145
References......Page 149
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 152
2 Time and Mortality......Page 155
3 Disintegration of Language (and Meaning)......Page 159
4 ‘Une autre face du tragique’......Page 163
5 Camus’ Absurd Theatre......Page 167
6 Chapter Conclusion......Page 172
References......Page 177
1 Chapter Introduction......Page 180
2 From Meursault to Harun......Page 182
3 Franciscan Knowledge and ‘What-It’s-Like-Ness’......Page 185
4 Knowledge of the Other, from ‘The Other’......Page 189
5 Faith and Redemption: Meursault’s Defence......Page 194
6 Chapter Conclusion......Page 197
References......Page 200
8: Conclusion: Ethics Through Interdisciplinarity......Page 202
References......Page 205
Index......Page 206

✦ Subjects

Existentialism