Albert Camus Archives - Public Seminar

Activism

Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas

Voices of sanity are in danger of being drowned out by the rhetoricians of all-out war

October 16, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

For a long time many civilians, Israeli and Palestinian, have suffered, as their leaders have failed to bring about a civil, peaceful, and at least modestly just end to a long and violent conflict. I feel for them all, and particularly for the children who have grown up knowing nothing ...

Reflections on the War between Israel and Hamas

Film

Nihilism for the Whole Family!

How Evelyn misinterpreted Waymond’s rebellion in Everything Everywhere All At Once

April 18, 2023 • by Ken Hu

Evelyn’s response to the multiverse reflects an existentialist resolution that builds upon a particular version of nihilism: if the universe is inherently meaningless, then we are at liberty to create our own meanings within it....

Blue Monday

Between Past and Future

Thinking about life and death

April 23, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington I attended an interesting talk yesterday. Being a young scholar, the speaker was (of course) using PowerPoint. At one moment in the talk he referenced a “recent argument” that he would engage. As he did ...

Feature

On Leaping Into Love

Night of Philosophy Love Symposium

March 28, 2018 • by Skye C. Cleary

Remember the last time we had this dinner party, Aristophanes got drunk and went on a rant about soulmates? Here we are -- almost 2,500 years later -- and people still believe in this myth. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Aristophanes was joking! When we fall in love, it does feel ...

Power and Crisis

Against “Charm”

The Uses of Autobiography for Philosophy

December 20, 2015 • by Laura Nelson

Moreover, how other philosophers lived and died is not the most important thing about them either: while life and work are inseparable, the latter takes pride of place. Heidegger went too far in saying that all one needs to know about Aristotle, for philosophical purposes, was that he lived, then ...