Unsolicited advice
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Albert Camus is one of the most famous philosophers of the 20th century, and I get almost endless requests to cover him. I have done so in the past, but on reflection those treatments were inadequate, and a little misleading. So today I thought we would look at Camus from a different angle, and chart his philosophy from its inceptions to its culminations.
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00:00 Absurdism and Misconceptions
01:37 The Absurd: A Brief Introduction
09:56 The Absurd Hero: Solitary Beginnings
17:34 Absurdism and Community
25:40 The Trivialization of Albert Camus
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49 Comments
@unsolicitedadvice9198
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMLINKS AND CORRECTIONS:
Head to https://squarespace.com/unsolicitedadvice to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code UNSOLICITEDADVICE
Support me on Patreon here (you lovely person): https://patreon.com/UnsolicitedAdvice701?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Subscribe to my Substack here for more of my writings (and my scripts): https://josephfolley.substack.com/
@Discworld-Edge-Witch
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMHave you seen Everything Everywhere All at Once? I feel like that movie is a love letter to absurdist philosophy on some level.
@Frontpageleisure
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMDo these later thoughts not turn Absurdism into its own religion?
@katakesh8566
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMIdk man, philosophical suicide doesnt sound bad.
Anyone else?
@Projectz3br4
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis is very comforting ❤ maybe it is because it is a video essay basically organizing all my sub conscious thoughts and philosophies or.. it could just be this guy’s voice 😂
@jamestagge3429
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMCamus was just another fool, a vacuous man whose rejection of meaning in life and the moral imperatives consequent of the very nature of “being” contradicted his own attempt at philosophy. Life is anything but absurd in any manner of definition of the term. One need not read the nonsense he wrote to understand. Materiality itself is an assertion of that of which it is composed. All entities are also and all that might be born of the process of abstraction, itself a reflection of the contextual referents within that material realm.
So what then is the meaning of life? First, it is to be lived and to be engaged by the choosing of the available paths along which one might travel. In purely material terms, what is the purpose of an acorn? Is it not to become an oak tree? Likewise, what is the purpose of a newborn but to become an adult? The force of the process of material existence is that it does exist. As for the matter of moral imperatives which is surely an extension of these issues, it is a bit more complex and that for another time/post.
We know that like the purpose of a baby is to become an adult, as an adult he would better his life and increase his happiness were he to learn to appreciate (as an example) art of all kinds and to engage others in relationships who were likewise occupied. What is the purpose of art but that we as beings capable of abstraction and being affected by it in a manner which gives intellectual and emotional pleasure, expose ourselves to it for our enjoyment and improvement. One would know true pleasure from the consequent relationships and the application of his intellect and talents, obviously gifted by God or nature if you prefer, that like becoming an adult from a child, should be developed as well.
The purpose or meaning in that which exists “is” that it “does” exist and that it becomes what it will by its design, both in material and metaphysical terms.
If the vultures lives are meaningful in that they clean the environment of those animals which have passed, surely men’s lives are meaningful in the tasks to which they apply themselves and in their appreciation of their creations.
@tylerkroenke7804
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI don’t think I understand. Maybe someone can help. What’s the difference Camus’s mature thought and recognizing life, honesty, and community are non-instrumental moral goods?
@mervmartin2112
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMFair and Just don't occur in Nature. They're human constructs and have nothing to do with reality. They're "absurdities". There may be more.
@robertgerrity878
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMYou a seriously thisclose, given your voice, to doing "One. The Larch. An introduction." Which may itself encapsulate absurdism given John Cleese's philosophy degree.
@moosenllama4292
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMAs far as I understand it, the final stage of faith was “absurdity” in Kierkegaard’s book “Fear and Trembling”
I’m not sure how popular Kierkegaard was during the mid 20th century, but I wonder if there’s a connection.
@hungrymikepencetd5686
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMFrom Schopenhauer on, the only "philosophy" those "thinkers" proposed was nihilism and satanism. Like with music and art, you can just forget about all of it and you wouldnt lose one good thought. Just a bunch of low IQ clowns for the most part and a result of democracy and "illumination".
@Pedro-26x
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMLife itself is just an experience, we born unwillingly only to die unexpectedly; just enjoy every moment.
@RonnyAndersson-q9b
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMAbsurdism is another form of escapism.
@boxingjerapah
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMAlbert Camus is all I've ever needed.
@z0uLess
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMBut what if people dont want to accept the absurd as you are accepting it? You want to be united with people but people dont want to be united with you.
@hitorideronin
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMAs a fellow philosopher, i gotta say that this is the kind of reflection and honest analysis that makes it worth it to keep philosophy alive. Not only for us people with degrees, but for everyone. Thanks for the good work 👍
@NickOleksiakMusic
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis definitely shines a light on Camus' philosophy for me!
I'm glad he came to a similar positive conclusion that Christians (should) have – love over hate. Jesus fought tyranny not with a bloodstained sword, but with compassion. His status as Savior was denied by many because of how radical this paradigm shift was. I truly wouldn't be surprised if Jesus had studied with Buddhists during some of those elusive 18 years.
Similarly, we shouldn't let our bitterness guide our actions. Caligula became a monster because he was resentful of the world for taking his sister from him. His hate guided him.
@RubeusArchos
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMMany of comments here are absurd just as with many other things in this world
@johndavis2399
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis monologue is quite engaging and superbly reasoned.
It would be more believable if there was a guitar hanging on the wall behind him.
@TheLeonhamm
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMA delightfully entertaining excursus on a quirkily amusing human (self-)experience. The all too real absurdness of the truly absurd human existence is best viewed via its own innate absurdity .. the incongruity of a vicious predator with a voracious appetite fit to consume the very means of his own livelihood, thinking he can observe himself rationally (let alone scientifically) in a civilised manner. Not only is the absurd slightly out of tune .. with how man 'thinks' – if he bothers so to do – but it is also quite ridiculous as a piece of logic .. which man can perceive and admit in his own periods of fairly reasonable self-assessment.
Chesterton's tale 'The Man Who Was Thursday' is the antidote to and explanation of the riddle of man's mind, it is a distorting mirror held up to man's soul, an elfin paradox given a dramatic paradiddle of a thumping, only lived outside the constraints of storytelling. What the absurd is not, however, is incomprehensible (within man's limited intellect), it is senseless but not necessarily unhealthy (man can laugh – at himself), mad, therefore, to a degree .. but not certifiable.
And that is where Camus – and his artistic set, individually – mistakes not only himself but in the mind-bleaching 'light' by which he insists man's 'existence' may be scrutinised .. in thought, word, deed (and by omission) he also casts others into deeper shadow; his mankind is quite unlike the many-eyed angels (holy to God and in rebellion against Him), for these angels can 'fly' because they take themselves lightly, his kind of man it seems will not have anything of such frivolity.
;o)
@tommieradcliff137
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis is another example of the inadequacy of language to explain exisitence.
@863arthur
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis is a very good analysis 💯
@TheJthom9
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMMeaninglessness only makes sense if there is meaning to be absent. These two points define the boundaries of the Absurd. To embrace something, you have to first believe in its value. But that goes against the definition of the Absurd. To revolt against something, you first have to posit something new in its place. But that also goes against the definition of the Absurd. These are the irreconcilable contradictions in Camus's thinking for me
@bigdonutstudio
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI really wanna finish this video but I've only read The Stanger and The Fall and I'm spiraling in ego death but I don't want any more spoilers!
@adeelahmed9038
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI can not put into words how incredibly you have explained such a complex topic… I'm amazed by your ability to relate the works together and see the bigger picture. Extremely talented, and your choice of words is just amazing 👏🏻
@Mark-v4s3z
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI smell pork, that is all
@l.w.j.pendergast6756
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMMy whole experience of life is alienation from the world. I feel like i am in a play, as he just described it. But the difference is that I don't mind. I just enjoy this. So i live in an existential crisis but i dont mind it. What does that mean @unsolicitedadvice9198 ?
@suroorbutti9175
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis video is objectively perfect.
@taken_over3416
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMOne of the issues with the popular conception of Camus is that he, as you said, has to introduce solidarity. It doesn’t arise naturally but more out of a practical necessity. At that point, and if nothing has any meaning, why should I rebel against the absurd or even acknowledge it to begin with? To a degree, even the early philosophy has this question but I think it is easier for ideas that seem more consistent to be spread and popularized.
@mysteryman2215
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMRick Sanchez is the perfect example for absurdism and for kamu
@ativjoshi1049
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMA wonderful and very clarifying video essay.
@davidlozier8606
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis video has helped me better understand absurdism and that it is not a philosophical position for me.
@johngleue
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThere is no bright side to absurdism. It's disintegrated nonsense. In art, it simply reflects the artist's nihilism and their view of man's life as meaningless.
@zezefulfule
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMVery good pods❤❤❤
@Joe-Przybranowski
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMIts absurd that carlins 7 words from thirty years ago are utubes 700 words we are no longer allowed to use.
@whiteglint7694
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMOh, ive become the solitary absurdist, who hates his own and other's existence, in a world that cant be redeemed. Its a sad life but thats how ive felt lately
@ezshottah3732
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMCamus has always resonated with me and your analysis have helped to understand why
@prodbyed4549
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI guess the counter argument/arguments against this is; it sounds like there's some sort of assumption that everyone is going to experience nihilism and/or the absurd at some point, I don't think that's true. Even if everyone does experience nihilism, they can become an existentialist or reject absurdism and accept Philosophical su***de. Saying Camus wants us to acknowledge that we're all in this together and face the absurd together is a vary, VARY, optimistic view of society. In theory is sounds good but in practice it fails. Human behavior is way to complicated.
Another counter argument is whether or not Albert Camus believed in free will. For this idea to be true, one must have the ability of will, as I said human behavior is complicated. I don't believe we have free will. I believe I heard someone say Camus stated that we act as if we have free will and that's enough. lol not me, that's not enough. To me, coming together on the internet and meeting somewhat like minded people is about as far as we may get with that. For now.
@apolonix656
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMCamus literally saved my life when I was going through a rough depressive phase. I started from “The Fall” and then read his other works and it just brought me back to life. I started feeling like myself maybe for the first time and thats feeling was so new and powerful. After that I started learning more about philosophy and even decided to go study it in University. I still remember how heartbroken I felt when I was asked “Who’s your favourite philosopher?” and I answered “Albert Camus” and the one who asked that laughed and said “Well I wouldn’t call him a philosopher, he’s more of a publicist”. It was the first day of the semester…
Watching other people also admire works of Camus gives me hope and knowledge that I’m not the only one who feels connected to problems he described.
@Liisa3139
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI have been a friend of Sisyphus for a long time. It just so happens that I have a garden on a very stony land, so I'm lifting and carrying and rolling stones often. I don't know if anyone will ever find my work meaningful in any way, but I can tell you that the work itself is very satisfying. Heavy as hell, but satisfying, because the physical work in itself feels so good in the body and totally silences the mind of all useless (possibly philosophical) thoughts. Camus just did not know nor understand Sisyphus properly.💪🤗
@nataliapidduda8114
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMGood one Jreg, you showed those solitary absurdist heros
@jam1087
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMSomething that is absurd in these here days are the censoring words and fraises. Why in the hell would you silence a word like suicide? There is so much candy ass weakness in the world nowadays
@adinaaamir1157
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMI feel like the biggest way to understand Camus’ philosophy is looking into the role he plays in the Algerian Freedom Movement. At the face of the absurd world, rebellion is actually to make meaning, care, take responsibility to reduce the suffering of others.
@Wehadiairs
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMA question to the comment section:
How much do you think camus' socialist philosophy of his younger days influence his later philosophy(I don't want spcialism slander, but real philosophical discussion)
Thank you
@Cosmic_Chronicles_
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMBasicly agreed fully with Camus, I litterly searched for some simmilar idea in chatgpt and he introduced me with absurdism so I youtubed it and here I am.
@eliot.elwold
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMCamus ends up running away at the end as well. If life is truly absurd. Then your moral notions of evil or psychopathic behaviour are just as pointless. Life simply is.
@NovaScotianBelle
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMThis is my favorite of all your videos so far. I can't thank you enough!
@AlexGreat87
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMOne of the most important point of Camus, and hope this is not an oversimplification from myself, it is to combat, fight against the absurd, even if it is a losing battle. Because the battle in itself might have meaning, even if it is a losing one. Rebelling is at the core of Camus philosophy, if you do not include rebellion, then you don't really fully understand Camus.
@yunesbb
03/06/2025 - 6:04 AMamazing video, thanks man