Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Camus

  • Books or Eternal Life?

    A quick Substack poke at Camus.

  • Remembering Albert Camus . . .

    . . . and one whose hero he was. Substack latest.

  • Albert Camus: He’s a Rebel!

    You'll enjoy it. If you don't,  you are not MavPhil material. Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt, tr. A. Bower, Vintage 1991, p. 15, French original published by Gallimard in 1951: Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees. Good advice if one can take it without…

  • Eminent Domain Abuse

    Little Pink House, a movie. The right to private property is another thing leftists don't understand, unless it is their private property.  Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 177: The Revolution is good.  But why?  One must have an idea of the civilization one wishes to create.  The abolition…

  • Virtue and its Exhortation

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 72: Virtue is not hateful. But speeches on virtue are. Without a doubt, no mouth in the world, much less mine, can utter them. Likewise, every time somebody interjects to speak of my honesty . . . there is someone who quivers…

  • True Whether or Not Aristotle (or Camus) Said It

    Be skeptical of all unsourced quotations. Where did the Stagirite say this? Jumping ahead a couple of millennia, one finds the following bogus Camus quotation on several of those wretched unsourced quotation websites: "I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out there isn't, than live my…

  • “No Man is a Hypocrite in His Pleasures”

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 95: Johnson: "No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures." The Johnson in question is Samuel Johnson. Translator Bloom informs us that James Boswell's Vie de Samuel Johnson (Life of Samuel Johnson) was published in France in 1954. So it looks as…

  • Books or Eternal Life?

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 94: A priest who regrets having to leave his books when dying? Which proves that the intense pleasure of eternal life does not infinitely exceed the gentle company of books. Come on, Al, be serious. Eternal life is an object of faith…

  • Depoliticize and Humanize

    Reading Notebooks 1951-1959 of Albert Camus, I cannot help but love and sympathize with this sensitive, self-doubting, and tortured soul. Stages of healing. Letting volition sleep. Enough of 'you must.' Completely depoliticize the mind in order to humanize it. Write the claustrophobic — and comedies. Deal with death, which is to say, accept it. Accept…

  • Life Without a View Other than the Immediate One

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 202: Algerians.  They live in the richness and warmth of friendship and family.  The body as the center, and its virtues — and its [sic] profound sadness as soon as it declines — life without a view other than the immediate one,…

  • Private Property

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 177: The Revolution is good.  But why?  One must have an idea of the civilization one wishes to create.  The abolition of property is not an end.  It is a means. This is foolish. Private property is the foundation of individual liberty.…

  • Venice in August

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 163: Venice in August and the swarms of tourists, who flock to St. Mark's Square at the same time as the pigeons, peck at impressions, and give themselves vacations and ugliness. Related articles Remembering Albert Camus Of Socialism, Violets, and Asphalt Camus…

  • Camus on Crybullies, Safe Spaces, and Trigger Warnings

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, p. 73: Too much security for the child's heart, and the adult will spend his life demanding this security from people — even though people are only opportunities for risk and freedom. Related articles Remembering Albert Camus Continental Philosophers I Respect and the 'Continental-Analytic Divide'

  • Of Socialism, Violets, and Asphalt

    Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959, tr. Ryan Bloom, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010, p. 61: Socialism, according to Zochtchenko, will be when violets grow on asphalt. Bernie Sanders take note. Translator's footnote: Mikhail Zochtchenko (1895-1962), Soviet writer and humorist persecuted by Stalin. Related articles Remembering Albert Camus Albert Camus, <i>Notebooks</i> 1951-1959 Continental Philosophers I Respect and…

  • Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

    This is one of the books I am reading at the moment.  Tr. Ryan Bloom.  First appeared in French in 1989 by Editions Gallimard, Paris, English translation 2008, first paperback edition 2010 (Ivan R. Dee, Chicago). Some good stuff here, but some nonsense as well, for example: A priest who regrets having to leave his…