You know, I'm getting a lot of comments from people who are in the same boat, more or less -- they want to study philosophy, but for one reason or another they're not able to got to college/university -- either at all or at the time. So, there's a pretty serious desire out there, among a lot of people, to not only read and study philosophy, but to do so in some way kinda like what occurs in college/university. I've got to say that, on my end, that's pretty cool to see
Dr Sugrue did a lot of lectures about philosophy several decades ago, even prior to You Tube, and uploaded them. He also did a series about the Bible. He had health problems but is back on TH-cam again.
This video was suggested after my most recent song about Sisyphus, and holy crap, your channel is EXACTLY what I have been looking for - intellectually satisfying philosophy videos by someone who doesn't live in a bubble of musty sweaters and dusty armchairs. A TH-cam channel of someone who understands what youtube is good for, the modern day, and even modern politics, and doesn't let that dumb down the subject being dealt with or let the subject being dealt with become too divorced from a modern audience. I didn't understand just how well you introduced the problem until the absolutely brilliant summation in the last ten minutes. The sociopolitical implications of different ways of dealing with "the absurd" is exactly what I was trying to get at in my book, Void. I will now add your channel to my list of videos to devour like I do with certain TED videos, which are also great in similar respects. As an aside, I think you may find it amusing to know you remind me a bit of Christian Bale, were he playing the part of a professor. Keep this channel going, and if you don't have a video about Schopenhauer yet, please make one. Thank you for doing this for everyone to see on TH-cam.
Thanks for the very nice -- and concrete -- evaluation here! Looks like an interesting book over on your channel. So. . . Schopenhauer. . . eventually. . . .
Camus is an avowed atheist, like some other Existentialists like Sartre, De Beauvoir, Nietzsche. He criticizes theistic Existentialists like Kierkegaard or Shestov. I'm not sure how there's confusion about this. If one is an Atheist, that doesn't mean that every single thing the person says comes out of or is an expression of atheism.
Glad that both of those have been so helpful for you! You might also check this out, along those lines - reasonio.wordpress.com/philosophical-counseling/
I agree with this comment so much. Reading this book I would say touched my heart not just my brain. I never cried this much reading a non- fiction book. I just felt less lonely and that there is another human out there who gets my views about this purposeless world. This also scares me as it makes me wonder how much of my believes and views are based on emotions rather than logic.
Glad you find the videos useful. I'm not a Camus follower myself -- when I teach anyone's works, I attempt to present their position as fully as possible, in such a way as to make it a plausible way to see things
Gregory, thankyou for your generous gesture of making Philosophy accessible to all. Loved this series on Sisyphus. Understanding more of the themes has benefitted me greatly- thankyou. I really appreciate your energy and effort in putting together this fabulous resource. Cheers!:) Annie
You're very welcome. Glad the series has been helpful. In the next few months, I'm going to be shooting some additional Camus-related videos for my Existentialism playlist
You're very welcome. I'm going to keep on with shooting and uploading free videos for a long time, I think (lots of stuff to shoot videos on) -- though you notice I do allow the ads. We're also in the process of putting together online courses that these videos are going to be components of. The "bare bones" class, which will have materials to go along with the videos, for self-study, will be free. The more intensive and instructor-interactive levels are going to be pay, but not expensive
I certainly have -- one of my first contacts with existentialism, back in high school -- one off the works that made me want to read more from and know more about Camus. I'll be devoting a lecture to The Stranger in the next month or so -- but I'll be concentrating even more (with multiple lectures) on The Plague, The Rebel, and maybe even Camus' Notebooks
You're very welcome. As to how technical they are -- I'm not a particularly of judge of my own work. Some viewers seem to think they're not overly technical, but it's hard for me to say.
It's worth noting that Sisyphus couldn't commit suicide or rely on illusion of an after life because he condemned to eternal futile labor. He had no choice but to accept his fate. We human can choose to commit suicide. If there's no go or afterlife, death is simply a painless non existence. From that point of view, death is not the problem, life is. We are all condemned to life. Suicide is end of all suffering.
This is a nihilistic and negative view of life. Yes, there is a negative side to life and there is suffering. But it is one side and it is not all of life.
It was fascinating to discover this philosophy in Camus' early novella 'A Happy Death', to see it come to life through narration. Thanks to your lecture I could understand his argument which enriched my experience of the story.
'A Happy Death' was an earlier manuscript - which Camus discarded, and was only published after his death. If you haven't already delved into the complexities of The Outsider', I recommend you give it a look. The one 'perfecting' the other. Albert Camus has - and still does, give me much reading pleasure. No happening, in his novels, is quite what it seems. While his philosophy on life may well have been 'absurd', he was a 'humanist' of the highest order. Keep pushing that stone, Sisyphus.
itsjustskinsteven stevens I agree with you. I have been reading Camus - and those associated with him, for the best part of twenty years. As you rightly say, each new reading reveals a detail previously not seen. I think that people miss something when not prepared to play the long game. To seek, to strive, to find, and not to yield?
MonkeyButler300 Yes, well I guess that striving that you speak of goes back to Aristotle. In the case of novels, I've began to consider them as works of philosophy in motion, where, like you said, their points can be lost when we don't read them with a philosophic mind or eye for the 'long game' as you i put it.
I would like to thank you for this and all your videos which i'll be engaging now that I have discovered it. I had never read much existentialism other than the literary likes of Doestovesky, pardon the sure misspelling, Kafka and my favorite author, Camus. At the age of 17, when my brother was in college getting BA in philosophy, I experienced something for years i couldn't describe. When I read Camus' fictional works, I found a common thread. This experience took many turns, from its first exuberance (from a depression i had felt since puberty, roughly at age 10, which i would finally realize is definitely a chemical imbalance that we call bipolarism of the second type) to a loss that lead first to drug addiction then a suicide which i survived (attempt is such a sickly word to describe a full fledged decision). In and out of college for ten years, nearing my end of drug addiction with the occasional, functional, but still detrimental crystal meth (my last drug of choice, which it indeed is) I find myself looming back to my academic roots (I lack three electives and two spanish classes for my BA from GSU, unable to finish what is basically a semester due to the incredible rising cost of higher education) I am poet first, it often seems, and a man second. The absurd is something very real to me and very hard to cope with it but simultaneously lights a fire to an engine that means to learn, to engage, to discover, and hopefully one day to an acceptance (if not happiness, which is a feeling i have rarely felt in life) of this, my existence. I cannot wait to finish this series on Camus, go back and watch the entirety of Existentialism, and then go back and watch all of your lectures from day one. You and others such as you, not just teachers or professors but other artist, writers, and musicians, poets and brothers and sisters and information, data if you will, you inspire me. You help me say, this action of smoking meth is bullocks (as our cousins across the sea would say) and help a barely lit passion begin to burn. I must go forward. Thank you. All peace always amig@, aaron.
Flywheel Shyster You're very welcome! I'm glad that the videos could be useful for you in working on your own life. That's less due to the videos, though, and more to the works the videos are about. That strikes me as as very good way to use the experience of the absurd
Well, not in the Existentialism sequence, but perhaps in a later sequence on post-Hegelian dialectical thought, which as far as I understand is where Stirner fits best. I have to admit though, that I'd need to immerse myself in his work before I'd shoot a video on it
Oh my, this is an excellent channel. I've always been meaning to get into philosophy. Your channel looks like it has a wealth of information; I don't know where to begin.
Hi Greg, Just wanted to thank you for taking the time and educating us. I am a physician and practice emergency medicine. I am faced with suffering and death many times per day and for 22 years...... I see the obsurdity of life and pondered the question of why so much pain and suffering ! You have added a new and different perspective ...... Not sure if a better one or not, nonetheless a new one...... Keep educating and I am sure we will benefit.. Best wishes.
Reading this book and watching your lectures on it I can begin to understand why my cousin took his life 20 years ago. I was 14, and he was 24. He tried to get close to me to have someone to talk to but I wasn't mature enough to understand what he needed at the moment. I didn't have the tools. Being raised in a catholic school, suicide was just "a sin", not very different than murder in the eyes of god. I stand with C. Hitchens in his opinion that religion poisons everything. I wish philosophy was taught in schools since 1st grade. This would equip people with the knowledge necessary to live a healthy, kind, and virtuous life. But well, here I am! Deep into your content and these wonderful books. At least I know my children will be educated on the topic as soon as they start yapping! Thanks!
Very sorry to hear that -- you might try taking one with a different instructor, different texts, sometime down the line. There's good reasons why people have been drawn into philosophy throughout the ages. But, I see this quite often, that someone gets turned off from philosophy as a whole because of the representatives of the discipline which they get stuck with -- and then see as typical of the discipline
Amazing, you’re really good educator in many ways. You make me pick up a New thought every time. Very entertaining aswell. Never really felt like Reading Camus, dont know why, untill I watched this, so thank you cause I have a new favorite!
Yeah i read it my freshman year! the librarian noticed i checked out many of the books in the humanities section so she recommended this books I enjoyed it!
I would say that at bottom, I'm a Christian Platonist -- which would make my stance more like that of Gabriel Marcel, along the various existentialists, than Camus (who I do like better, though, than Sartre). When you get down to it, though, I do draw quite a bit from the Aristotelian tradition, from the Stoic tradition, and from the Existentialists (even some of the atheists, in part)
Thanks! -- well, I guess it depends on what you want to get into first. I'd suggest looking at the available playlists and seeing which ones draw you most
Would the realisation of ones own mortality inspire the notion of the absurd? At 25:00 you say a professior might want to show their students the full weight of the absurd feeling, but couldn't. I wonder if people lucidly acknowledged their own inevitable death and eventually fade into nothingness, wouldn't that be a way of illuminating the absurd viewpoint?
Well, this Carpenter from NY thanks you. I'm not sure what your goal is in making these but I hope you continue to make these high quality videos (no, I don't mean resolution but content). Gotta go to bed. Have a great weekend.
Hi, I really admire what you do! Your are helping many, just like my self, to get a better understanding of profound and philosophical books that not everyone can completely grasp. And in this case you’ve enormously help me clear Camus philosophy more that I woulda ever done alone. So I wanna thank you for this, and also ask you if you were planning on also doing any analysis on The Rebel, a book thar I find a hard time to get my head around to! And I’m sure you would’ve be able to help many with this masterpiece ! :)
"What am I doing going to this class? Is this part of my grand scheme of life?" Unironically me during every moment of the day. I spend weeks coming up with the perfect goals and the perfect schedule based on logic and rationality, only to ultimately question the point of it all.
Excellent lecture, thank you! The Myth of Sisyphus is a very dense read that I've been struggling with so I appreciate your insights and look forward to checking out other lectures in your series.
Thank you. Since I found it really hard to read the Myth of Sysiphus so I went to youtube to find somebody explain the concept of this book and I found your channel. Im gonna watch the video although English is my 2nd language.
Yes, I read the essay a long time ago, ut still remember it. Life is absurd in that everything we do comes undone and must be done over and over. We die, so future generations must take up the same tasks. How does one not become overwhelmingly depressed by this situation? By learning to enjoy the tasks themselves. By learning to "love the rock." I think that was the point he was making.
Well, not exactly. That might be one of the several ways of dealing with the absurd -- Camus sets out several different "ethics" of the absurd later in the piece, and suggests that there could be many more
I would highly recommend doing so, I feel that Stirner's work is indispensable in a course on Existentialism. Published in 1844, The Ego and Its Own obviously predates most mainstream existentialist works, but in many ways it anticipates many existentialist themes. In my opinion it is one of the most in depth analyses of the consequences of being a conscious individual.
Sometimes I read the paper; I read terrible stories of rape victims in foreign countries being flogged for adultery. Then I flick the page over and read about some hero who risked his life to save someone. And I think...what! What is going on? I think this is absurd.
Well, no end in sight for video-production for me.. . not anytime soon. Originally, I was just shooting them for my enrolled students at the places I was teaching (FSU, then Marist). Then I started to realize I could shoot videos on pretty much anything I liked in Philosophy. I had viewers requesting certain thinkers, so I did a poll, and then decided to shoot Existentialism videos for a while. Then, I started shooting shorter Core Concept videos to help out students and lifelong learners
Hello Gregory, as l get it you see all comments, l listen to you from Georgia, and i would like to say that you are really great person. I just want to share my appreciation to you. I'm studying on the political science, but i totally interested philosophy and your videos help me to learn more.
Dear mr Gregory B. Sadler, I am writing my bachelor's thesis on an Israeli poet, trying to discover whether Camus could have used this poet (or at least, the persona poetica I can discover in the poems, the lyrical poet so to speak) as an example of his philosophy of the absurd. I watched your movies on the myth of sisyphus a couple of weeks ago, loved them, but now I have a question on the book: Why do you think does Camus say in the myth about a mother (page 101 in French, about Don Juanism) that "a mother, a passionate woman, have necessarily a dry heart, because it is turned away from the world". Do you think Camus says this because he thinks mothers think their maternal love is eternal? That they forget to think about the absurdity of their lives? That they do live with some kind of hope? This part about maternal love, which is quite short, is important to me, since the poet I am studying has a lot of poems about a lost child and a yearning for this child. Thank you in advance! Kind regards, Merel
Wow. Thank you for this. Recently I came to the conclusion (via my own independent thinking, w/ no aid of a spiritual teacher nor philosopher), that there are only two options one has when they enter this world: 1) commit suicide, or 2) live. I had no idea that this very view on things has been thought through by a philosopher, or any other human (although I of course suspected it had, as it seems glaringly obvious to me). All that to say - I am comforted to see this view being addressed in this lecture, and to discover that other humans too have realized this “absurd” human predicament we all face. I feel less alone now. Thank you again.
Hello Dr Sadler, I just found out about your channel, And I love philosophy so much .. Hope your lectures arent too technical, I am only a high school Maths student, from a little country of the third world called Morocco .. Anyway, All I wanted to do is to thank you, so thanks :)
I'd say that a soft nihilism is a necessary and sufficient condition to understand the absurd. As long as you have a belief to cling on to (hope), then there is reason to the universe (in your mind).
Shoot me now! I've read 52 pages of the book (English translation by Justin O'Brien) and have to admit I hardly understand any of it. Am I that stupid? Should I avoid anything more complicated than Mickey Mouse comic books? Then the thought occurred to me; the essay is intentionally absurd. Pick any sentence, often the previous sentence does not relate to it, nor does the following sentence. If the translation is true to the French original, Camus uses vague, flowery, poetic words, and a lot of "it". I have the feeling Camus had some interesting thoughts and packaged them among many absurd phrases and poetic expressions. Like a poem , what the author meant is anybody's guess. This essay probably can have 50 million different interpretations. However, I will finish reading the essay, it's stimulating. I like Nietzsche; he writes concisely, clearly, and to the point. Or should I discard my brain and shop for a better one? How would you like to rely on an instruction manual for Microsoft Windows written by Camus?
Yes, it's pretty straightforward prose, both in the original French and in every translation I've seen. Camus says somewhere that he deliberately wrote in a style as unadorned as possible
Thank you sir, I find it incredibly difficult to interpret his works, this made it somewhat sound to me, still a long way to go if there is a way at all
Hi Greg, I have really enjoyed your classes on Camus. I read The Stranger years ago, and recently read the Myth of Sisyphus. However, I have a question. You refer to it as Atheistic Existentialism. I'm a little confused...how is it Atheism when Camus says that he can not know if there is meaning to the world but he knows that it is not possible to know? To me that seems a little different than Atheism. Am I just splitting hairs?
Well, first off, we don't generally teach Philosophy as a subject in High School here -- unfortunate, but that's the case. Second, we've got a lot of people who simply can't afford to go to college -- unless they want to take on massive debt (which our governments, both Republican and Democrat have been pushing for years) -- particularly if they already have children, a fairly reliable job, etc. Third, even if you do go to college, a Philosophy class is a crapshoot, as far as instructors go
Fascinating, very informative educational, and fulfilling especially to one like myself with no real college ed. I would only ask that you get someone to darken your outline on the board. It's been very hard to read on TH-cam or take notes from it on any display screen. I greatly appreciate your presentation.
@@GregoryBSadler By using CGI. Could be a great challenge for someone in the graphics dept. You should remember your wonderful lectures maybe timeless, it is for me and I believe many others.
@@GregoryBSadler Sorry to hear that. Seniors I believe would love to see and hear it. It was likes a sunrise in my mind. Answered tons of questions for an old autodidact like myself. Thanks anyway still I believe in the power of computer graphics even with Vhf tapes, the words or there already. Again, I wish there was a way to make them "timeless", I watched them 3 times in 2 days!
I'd say that one of the things you'll want to do is focus on what he meant by "Existentialist", then look at the broader meaning of the term, and see why he fits the second. If you search, you'll find lots of web-resources out there about Camus and existentialism.
Does Camus believe in the existence of free will? I heard it explained once that existentialists believe in the existence of free will and hence our ability to freely create meaning for ourselves but that absurdists deny this ability. In your view is this correct? Thanks for the lecture!
Different people mean different things by "free will". There's no real agreement about "absurdists" about anything as far as I can tell, so you'd want to read individual thinkers to see what their positions actually are. Camus himself does seem to think we have a capacity to choose
I'm not in America so that's probably why I don't get it, but how can that be? I mean if you do well on your high school exams, and even better if you pick advanced philosophy as one of them, what could possibly stop you from studying philosophy at a university? Is there some kind of mega-deficiency in the number of philosophy departments or what?
Hey Greg, i've been enjoying your videos a lót: I think they're ideal (without sacrificing any depth ) for moods in which people like me are just too intimidated (lazy?) to confront the great authors your videos deal with themselves. Alas, I figure this same quality attracts people like me plaguing you with annoying questions like the following. :) So, while reading The Myth of Sisyphus I cannot shake the feeling that, while I can follow Camus conceptual framework to a good extent, i'm always left a bit uncertain about what exactly constitutes the (essential) conclusion that the world ''doesn't make sense'' or ''is irrational''. (While I can really grasp the ''feeling'' of the absurd, i'm interested here in what precisely is the intellectual content of that conclusion.) I have a few intuitions but still cant really make out which one is close to Camus' starting point (or if they share a common shape). So I know Camus talks about the lack of a great all-encompassing/unifying principle that gives sense to the world. I keep however feeling that i'm still unclear about what that means precisely. In other words, when camus' awakened person is screaming for ''the Why of it all'', what is the thing that precedes that why? What kind of answer is hoped for? Does a irrational world mean a world that is undesirable: a world where suffering is omnipresent and death makes all struggle in vain? Does a irrational world mean a world which we cant understand in it's entirety? Or does a irrational world mean a world where life itself has no purpose (such that a God in whose service and image we lived would solve that problem)? So in short: what are we talking about precisely when we say that the world doesn't make sense? Do you have any suggestions in the form of passages, other lectures, essays etc zooming in on this fundamental element in his structure ? (It's not that I don't agree with existential thought and Camus' starting point: to the contrary. What's bothering me is that intuitively I recognize the feeling wholeheartedly, while I know I couldn't explicitly explain in clear terms and without existential jargon why the world ''doesn't make sense'') ps i've read up to the chapter ''absurd freedom'' but don't want to read further while this notion is still so muddy to my mind. Sorry for the dense blabbering, bad English and superfluous amount of digital ink. I'd love to hear from you/ receive some tips!
The understanding of Absurd Camus has to be explained by its different aspects of itself. How does something come into being and the importances is weighed with in the individuals perspective about the issue at hand. Absurd Anywhere, is a wide verity of thinking with different causes that aren't necessary specific on the premise but, rather, by multiple events that the individual experiences. Next is the Intelligence someone has to understand how something comes into being. The discussion proposes that can something big come from something small? Rationalism is the processing of understanding the world and can be a better place of changed.Reasoning to understand something or the world is predicated on the person or set understanding of a concept. If their were set principles in life time and the experiences you have are set components to life, is absurd since everything is not controlled, nor are its nearest elements. In my opinions, I believe pre existing understanding of the knowledge someone has about a subject, sets the foundation to which the larger aspects reaches its conclusion. Although things aren't controlled completely, the understanding of the its primary existence is the footstool of the subject; understanding is completely objective. ( listen to hear more arose the lesson)GN
Another excellent lecture. Sometimes these concepts are very difficult without having someone explain what they mean... one last question, which I'm sure you have been asked to much, where should I began to grasp a more full understanding of Philosophy? Bertrand Russell's History of...Plato, Descartes?
Well, if you want a good history of philosophy, you want Copleston, not Russell. Generally, for one starting to study the history of philosophy, I suggest starting with Platonic dialogues
@@BBQcheese the Nietzsche part especially. Also his account of Hegel is just terrible. The fundemental problem with his work is he was already in a specific philosophical paradigm (we all are), so his report of certain philosophers are going to be biased on this. But also his account of religious philosophers or events are questionable. He's ok, but looking back on it after looking at more philosophy and history of philosophy, it's not a great account.
hi! sorry if this sounds a bit bizarre or what not, but I have a presentation on Camus and one of my chosen themes is existentialism, and while i have found virtually nothing on Camus's existentialism in the biography we have had to read, before I sit through your three hour lecture (which I will after this is due im just a bit caught on time) do you think this could help me argue Camus was an existentialist? (p.s. your videos are amazing, i watched a few others! thank you for posting)
the stranger was good, and my personal favorite would have to be The Rebel; I liked it even better than Fromms escape from freedom. (which was a good one as well.)
Well, he does so here -- but not in every work of his. The Rebel -- a later work -- criticizes Nietzsche. In this work, Camus' focus is on criticizing the theistic existentialists, so Nietzsche is pretty far from that group
You know, I'm getting a lot of comments from people who are in the same boat, more or less -- they want to study philosophy, but for one reason or another they're not able to got to college/university -- either at all or at the time.
So, there's a pretty serious desire out there, among a lot of people, to not only read and study philosophy, but to do so in some way kinda like what occurs in college/university.
I've got to say that, on my end, that's pretty cool to see
You're filling a need. Many thanks!
Dr Sugrue did a lot of lectures about philosophy several decades ago, even prior to You Tube, and uploaded them. He also did a series about the Bible. He had health problems but is back on TH-cam again.
This video was suggested after my most recent song about Sisyphus, and holy crap, your channel is EXACTLY what I have been looking for - intellectually satisfying philosophy videos by someone who doesn't live in a bubble of musty sweaters and dusty armchairs. A TH-cam channel of someone who understands what youtube is good for, the modern day, and even modern politics, and doesn't let that dumb down the subject being dealt with or let the subject being dealt with become too divorced from a modern audience. I didn't understand just how well you introduced the problem until the absolutely brilliant summation in the last ten minutes. The sociopolitical implications of different ways of dealing with "the absurd" is exactly what I was trying to get at in my book, Void. I will now add your channel to my list of videos to devour like I do with certain TED videos, which are also great in similar respects. As an aside, I think you may find it amusing to know you remind me a bit of Christian Bale, were he playing the part of a professor. Keep this channel going, and if you don't have a video about Schopenhauer yet, please make one. Thank you for doing this for everyone to see on TH-cam.
Thanks for the very nice -- and concrete -- evaluation here! Looks like an interesting book over on your channel.
So. . . Schopenhauer. . . eventually. . . .
Camus is an avowed atheist, like some other Existentialists like Sartre, De Beauvoir, Nietzsche. He criticizes theistic Existentialists like Kierkegaard or Shestov.
I'm not sure how there's confusion about this. If one is an Atheist, that doesn't mean that every single thing the person says comes out of or is an expression of atheism.
Discovering the works of Camus made me feel not alone in the world, while watching your videos has a greater effect than months of psychotherapy.
Glad that both of those have been so helpful for you!
You might also check this out, along those lines - reasonio.wordpress.com/philosophical-counseling/
"What counts is not the best living but the most living."
I agree with this comment so much. Reading this book I would say touched my heart not just my brain. I never cried this much reading a non- fiction book. I just felt less lonely and that there is another human out there who gets my views about this purposeless world. This also scares me as it makes me wonder how much of my believes and views are based on emotions rather than logic.
Glad you find the videos useful.
I'm not a Camus follower myself -- when I teach anyone's works, I attempt to present their position as fully as possible, in such a way as to make it a plausible way to see things
Hey professor, i loved your lecture very useful, why dont you subscribe to his ideas?
@@lorenzosimao6259 Good question for an AMA, perhaps not as a comment on a comment from 11 years ago
@@GregoryBSadler ill be on the lookout for that AMA
@@GregoryBSadler found on your website your next AMA will be july 6th 12pm-1:30pm. I will be there if im able to find where this will take place
@@lorenzosimao6259 We do them every month. Announced ahead of time in my social media, monthly update video, and on my ReasonIO events calendar
Gregory, thankyou for your generous gesture of making Philosophy accessible to all.
Loved this series on Sisyphus. Understanding more of the themes has benefitted me greatly- thankyou.
I really appreciate your energy and effort in putting together this fabulous resource.
Cheers!:) Annie
You're very welcome. Glad the series has been helpful. In the next few months, I'm going to be shooting some additional Camus-related videos for my Existentialism playlist
You're very welcome. I'm going to keep on with shooting and uploading free videos for a long time, I think (lots of stuff to shoot videos on) -- though you notice I do allow the ads.
We're also in the process of putting together online courses that these videos are going to be components of. The "bare bones" class, which will have materials to go along with the videos, for self-study, will be free. The more intensive and instructor-interactive levels are going to be pay, but not expensive
Glad it was useful for you -- there's two other vids specifically on the Mtyh of Sisyphus
I certainly have -- one of my first contacts with existentialism, back in high school -- one off the works that made me want to read more from and know more about Camus.
I'll be devoting a lecture to The Stranger in the next month or so -- but I'll be concentrating even more (with multiple lectures) on The Plague, The Rebel, and maybe even Camus' Notebooks
20:33 I absolutely love that quote. When I was reading The Myth of Sisyphus that line stood out the most to me 😊
same
You're very welcome. As to how technical they are -- I'm not a particularly of judge of my own work. Some viewers seem to think they're not overly technical, but it's hard for me to say.
new video in the Existentialist Philosophy and Literature sequence -- part 1 available as well: th-cam.com/video/_js06RG0n3c/w-d-xo.html
It's worth noting that Sisyphus couldn't commit suicide or rely on illusion of an after life because he condemned to eternal futile labor. He had no choice but to accept his fate. We human can choose to commit suicide. If there's no go or afterlife, death is simply a painless non existence. From that point of view, death is not the problem, life is. We are all condemned to life. Suicide is end of all suffering.
Yes, I suspect that Camus actually knew his mythology. . . so. . . that might just be off-point
+Mir Haque If Sisyphus could accept his life, regardless of whether he can die or not, why can't we?
Ken Dew you must be a Christian or something, huh?
Amen Mir. It's our one Ace in the hole. Other than that we got nothing.
This is a nihilistic and negative view of life. Yes, there is a negative side to life and there is suffering. But it is one side and it is not all of life.
new video in the ongoing Existentialist Philosophy and Literature series
Your lectures are lucid, understandable and informative. Thanks a lot for doing all of this for free.
How did it take me 3-4 years of being interested in philosophy on TH-cam to find this channel, what a gem this is!
Glad you enjoy it!
Great video, Dr. Sadler. Thanks so much for posting these for us.
Best,
AJ
You're welcome!
You're welcome -- glad it was helpful
It was fascinating to discover this philosophy in Camus' early novella 'A Happy Death', to see it come to life through narration. Thanks to your lecture I could understand his argument which enriched my experience of the story.
Glad the video was useful for you
'A Happy Death' was an earlier manuscript - which Camus discarded, and was only published after his death. If you haven't already delved into the complexities of The Outsider', I recommend you give it a look. The one 'perfecting' the other. Albert Camus has - and still does, give me much reading pleasure. No happening, in his novels, is quite what it seems. While his philosophy on life may well have been 'absurd', he was a 'humanist' of the highest order. Keep pushing that stone, Sisyphus.
MonkeyButler300 Yes, I have read The Outsider, but of course these texts always demand a re - reading. I guess this why they endure time so well.
itsjustskinsteven stevens I agree with you. I have been reading Camus - and those associated with him, for the best part of twenty years. As you rightly say, each new reading reveals a detail previously not seen. I think that people miss something when not prepared to play the long game. To seek, to strive, to find, and not to yield?
MonkeyButler300 Yes, well I guess that striving that you speak of goes back to Aristotle. In the case of novels, I've began to consider them as works of philosophy in motion, where, like you said, their points can be lost when we don't read them with a philosophic mind or eye for the 'long game' as you i put it.
Excellent video, discussion on one of my favorite philosophers and one of my favorite books!
Glad you enjoyed it
I would like to thank you for this and all your videos which i'll be engaging now that I have discovered it. I had never read much existentialism other than the literary likes of Doestovesky, pardon the sure misspelling, Kafka and my favorite author, Camus. At the age of 17, when my brother was in college getting BA in philosophy, I experienced something for years i couldn't describe. When I read Camus' fictional works, I found a common thread. This experience took many turns, from its first exuberance (from a depression i had felt since puberty, roughly at age 10, which i would finally realize is definitely a chemical imbalance that we call bipolarism of the second type) to a loss that lead first to drug addiction then a suicide which i survived (attempt is such a sickly word to describe a full fledged decision). In and out of college for ten years, nearing my end of drug addiction with the occasional, functional, but still detrimental crystal meth (my last drug of choice, which it indeed is) I find myself looming back to my academic roots (I lack three electives and two spanish classes for my BA from GSU, unable to finish what is basically a semester due to the incredible rising cost of higher education) I am poet first, it often seems, and a man second. The absurd is something very real to me and very hard to cope with it but simultaneously lights a fire to an engine that means to learn, to engage, to discover, and hopefully one day to an acceptance (if not happiness, which is a feeling i have rarely felt in life) of this, my existence. I cannot wait to finish this series on Camus, go back and watch the entirety of Existentialism, and then go back and watch all of your lectures from day one. You and others such as you, not just teachers or professors but other artist, writers, and musicians, poets and brothers and sisters and information, data if you will, you inspire me. You help me say, this action of smoking meth is bullocks (as our cousins across the sea would say) and help a barely lit passion begin to burn. I must go forward. Thank you. All peace always amig@, aaron.
Flywheel Shyster You're very welcome! I'm glad that the videos could be useful for you in working on your own life. That's less due to the videos, though, and more to the works the videos are about.
That strikes me as as very good way to use the experience of the absurd
I'm very glad that it has helped you out with learning about Camus -- a guy I've always liked, though not necessarily agreed with
Given how many people there are on the internet, that's really high praise! Thanks!
This lecture is so clear and helpful. I am so grateful that you give these for people like myself.
Glad the video was useful for you
Gregory, Fantastic video ! You have a brilliant way of presenting Camus's idea's! I applaud you good sir.
Thanks!
Well, not in the Existentialism sequence, but perhaps in a later sequence on post-Hegelian dialectical thought, which as far as I understand is where Stirner fits best. I have to admit though, that I'd need to immerse myself in his work before I'd shoot a video on it
Thanks for posting this! At a place in my life where I’m looking for direction and fell into Camus’ writing.
You're welcome!
Oh my, this is an excellent channel. I've always been meaning to get into philosophy. Your channel looks like it has a wealth of information; I don't know where to begin.
I am reading the book now and that is a really great video, thanks for the good work, from Brazil. :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Greg,
Just wanted to thank you for taking the time and educating us. I am a physician and practice emergency medicine. I am faced with suffering and death many times per day and for 22 years...... I see the obsurdity of life and pondered the question of why so much pain and suffering ! You have added a new and different perspective ...... Not sure if a better one or not, nonetheless a new one...... Keep educating and I am sure we will benefit.. Best wishes.
Reading this book and watching your lectures on it I can begin to understand why my cousin took his life 20 years ago.
I was 14, and he was 24. He tried to get close to me to have someone to talk to but I wasn't mature enough to understand what he needed at the moment.
I didn't have the tools.
Being raised in a catholic school, suicide was just "a sin", not very different than murder in the eyes of god. I stand with C. Hitchens in his opinion that religion poisons everything.
I wish philosophy was taught in schools since 1st grade. This would equip people with the knowledge necessary to live a healthy, kind, and virtuous life.
But well, here I am! Deep into your content and these wonderful books. At least I know my children will be educated on the topic as soon as they start yapping! Thanks!
Glad you enjoy the videos. Someday hopefully you’ll get past that Hitchens phase. Even Camus has a more prudent attitude towards religion
Thank you for these helpful presentations, it really helps me to better understand what my English teachers are trying to convey.
Very sorry to hear that -- you might try taking one with a different instructor, different texts, sometime down the line. There's good reasons why people have been drawn into philosophy throughout the ages.
But, I see this quite often, that someone gets turned off from philosophy as a whole because of the representatives of the discipline which they get stuck with -- and then see as typical of the discipline
You're very welcome. Glad the videos are a useful source for you
I love your voice. It's how the fatherly voice in my head sounds like now. I first watched your videos 8 years ago.
Glad my voice has such good associations
Amazing, you’re really good educator in many ways. You make me pick up a New thought every time. Very entertaining aswell. Never really felt like Reading Camus, dont know why, untill I watched this, so thank you cause I have a new favorite!
Glad it turned you on to reading Camus
That's a good librarian. Glad you had someone like that to suggest Camus to you!
Thank you for sharing this friendly and enlightening talk
You're very welcome!
Yeah i read it my freshman year! the librarian noticed i checked out many of the books in the humanities section so she recommended this books I enjoyed it!
I would say that at bottom, I'm a Christian Platonist -- which would make my stance more like that of Gabriel Marcel, along the various existentialists, than Camus (who I do like better, though, than Sartre).
When you get down to it, though, I do draw quite a bit from the Aristotelian tradition, from the Stoic tradition, and from the Existentialists (even some of the atheists, in part)
Thanks! -- well, I guess it depends on what you want to get into first. I'd suggest looking at the available playlists and seeing which ones draw you most
Would the realisation of ones own mortality inspire the notion of the absurd? At 25:00 you say a professior might want to show their students the full weight of the absurd feeling, but couldn't. I wonder if people lucidly acknowledged their own inevitable death and eventually fade into nothingness, wouldn't that be a way of illuminating the absurd viewpoint?
I've red this several years ago and now I noticed I missed a few points, I am grateful for this video.
Well, this Carpenter from NY thanks you. I'm not sure what your goal is in making these but I hope you continue to make these high quality videos (no, I don't mean resolution but content).
Gotta go to bed. Have a great weekend.
Hi, I really admire what you do! Your are helping many, just like my self, to get a better understanding of profound and philosophical books that not everyone can completely grasp. And in this case you’ve enormously help me clear Camus philosophy more that I woulda ever done alone. So I wanna thank you for this, and also ask you if you were planning on also doing any analysis on The Rebel, a book thar I find a hard time to get my head around to! And I’m sure you would’ve be able to help many with this masterpiece ! :)
Glad you enjoyed the video. The Rebel? Eventually
"What am I doing going to this class? Is this part of my grand scheme of life?" Unironically me during every moment of the day. I spend weeks coming up with the perfect goals and the perfect schedule based on logic and rationality, only to ultimately question the point of it all.
That sounds like it would suck
Excellent lecture, thank you! The Myth of Sisyphus is a very dense read that I've been struggling with so I appreciate your insights and look forward to checking out other lectures in your series.
Thanks for the video, it helps me to understand the book and the idea of absurdity of life.
You're welcome
Great video, I appreciate your concise and lucid explanations. Thanks for the post!
I just want to say thank you for doing this lesson sir. I've been wanting to learn about Camus and your video help me a great deal.
24:07 "The Feeling of Absurdity"
Good -- glad to hear it!
Thank you. Since I found it really hard to read the Myth of Sysiphus so I went to youtube to find somebody explain the concept of this book and I found your channel. Im gonna watch the video although English is my 2nd language.
One of my professors used to call Camus "the only honest atheist."
what about Ayn Rand
@@noahkarpinski1824 how is that
@@burritodog3634 That comment is 8 years did you honestly thought they would answer?
@@standowner6979 u just answered buddy
@@burritodog3634 yeah😅! But It's different
Yes, I read the essay a long time ago, ut still remember it.
Life is absurd in that everything we do comes undone and must be done over and over. We die, so future generations must take up the same tasks. How does one not become overwhelmingly depressed by this situation?
By learning to enjoy the tasks themselves. By learning to "love the rock."
I think that was the point he was making.
Well, not exactly. That might be one of the several ways of dealing with the absurd -- Camus sets out several different "ethics" of the absurd later in the piece, and suggests that there could be many more
Great video, Dr. Sadler. Thanks so much
You're welcome!
Great lecture! Black marker next time, please?
Thank you so much for putting the efforts Professor. Your videos help me a lot. Great...great channel. Much needed. Regards from India. 🙏
You're very welcome!
I would highly recommend doing so, I feel that Stirner's work is indispensable in a course on Existentialism. Published in 1844, The Ego and Its Own obviously predates most mainstream existentialist works, but in many ways it anticipates many existentialist themes. In my opinion it is one of the most in depth analyses of the consequences of being a conscious individual.
"What kind of life should I live?"
Let's turn that around in regards to suicide...
"Should I live a kind of life?"
Incredible. Thank you so much for giving this to people for free🎉
You're welcome!
Well, that could certainly be another way in which we come face to face with the Absurd
Sometimes I read the paper; I read terrible stories of rape victims in foreign countries being flogged for adultery. Then I flick the page over and read about some hero who risked his life to save someone. And I think...what! What is going on? I think this is absurd.
the lecture that started it for me, here's to another ten years
Here’s hoping!
Well, no end in sight for video-production for me.. . not anytime soon. Originally, I was just shooting them for my enrolled students at the places I was teaching (FSU, then Marist).
Then I started to realize I could shoot videos on pretty much anything I liked in Philosophy. I had viewers requesting certain thinkers, so I did a poll, and then decided to shoot Existentialism videos for a while.
Then, I started shooting shorter Core Concept videos to help out students and lifelong learners
Hello Gregory, as l get it you see all comments, l listen to you from Georgia, and i would like to say that you are really great person. I just want to share my appreciation to you.
I'm studying on the political science, but i totally interested philosophy and your videos help me to learn more.
I'm glad the videos have been helpful for you!
Dear mr Gregory B. Sadler,
I am writing my bachelor's thesis on an Israeli poet, trying to discover whether Camus could have used this poet (or at least, the persona poetica I can discover in the poems, the lyrical poet so to speak) as an example of his philosophy of the absurd.
I watched your movies on the myth of sisyphus a couple of weeks ago, loved them, but now I have a question on the book:
Why do you think does Camus say in the myth about a mother (page 101 in French, about Don Juanism) that "a mother, a passionate woman, have necessarily a dry heart, because it is turned away from the world". Do you think Camus says this because he thinks mothers think their maternal love is eternal? That they forget to think about the absurdity of their lives? That they do live with some kind of hope?
This part about maternal love, which is quite short, is important to me, since the poet I am studying has a lot of poems about a lost child and a yearning for this child.
Thank you in advance!
Kind regards,
Merel
Wow. Thank you for this.
Recently I came to the conclusion (via my own independent thinking, w/ no aid of a spiritual teacher nor philosopher), that there are only two options one has when they enter this world: 1) commit suicide, or 2) live.
I had no idea that this very view on things has been thought through by a philosopher, or any other human (although I of course suspected it had, as it seems glaringly obvious to me).
All that to say - I am comforted to see this view being addressed in this lecture, and to discover that other humans too have realized this “absurd” human predicament we all face.
I feel less alone now.
Thank you again.
You're welcome
Hello Dr Sadler, I just found out about your channel, And I love philosophy so much .. Hope your lectures arent too technical, I am only a high school Maths student, from a little country of the third world called Morocco .. Anyway, All I wanted to do is to thank you, so thanks :)
I'd say that a soft nihilism is a necessary and sufficient condition to understand the absurd. As long as you have a belief to cling on to (hope), then there is reason to the universe (in your mind).
Thank you so much for this video! Really enjoyed it.
you're quite welcome
Dr. Sadler! have you read albert camus's book "the stanger"
You're inquiring about individual tutoring, which I in fact do -- but I'm not taking on new clients at present
Yep, switched to that in the later ones -- and now that I've got my own chalkboard, not really an issue
philosophy fresher at oxford, these videos make it easy to pick up dense concepts, cheers
Shoot me now! I've read 52 pages of the book (English translation by Justin O'Brien) and have to admit I hardly understand any of it. Am I that stupid? Should I avoid anything more complicated than Mickey Mouse comic books? Then the thought occurred to me; the essay is intentionally absurd. Pick any sentence, often the previous sentence does not relate to it, nor does the following sentence. If the translation is true to the French original, Camus uses vague, flowery, poetic words, and a lot of "it". I have the feeling Camus had some interesting thoughts and packaged them among many absurd phrases and poetic expressions. Like a poem , what the author meant is anybody's guess. This essay probably can have 50 million different interpretations. However, I will finish reading the essay, it's stimulating. I like Nietzsche; he writes concisely, clearly, and to the point. Or should I discard my brain and shop for a better one?
How would you like to rely on an instruction manual for Microsoft Windows written by Camus?
+Wally Kaspars No. The translation sucks. That is all.
Yes, it's pretty straightforward prose, both in the original French and in every translation I've seen. Camus says somewhere that he deliberately wrote in a style as unadorned as possible
Gregory B. Sadler how many pages are there?
Wally consider yourself lucky.
Thank you sir, I find it incredibly difficult to interpret his works, this made it somewhat sound to me, still a long way to go if there is a way at all
You're welcome
You're welcome!
Hi Greg, I have really enjoyed your classes on Camus. I read The Stranger years ago, and recently read the Myth of Sisyphus. However, I have a question. You refer to it as Atheistic Existentialism. I'm a little confused...how is it Atheism when Camus says that he can not know if there is meaning to the world but he knows that it is not possible to know? To me that seems a little different than Atheism. Am I just splitting hairs?
Well, first off, we don't generally teach Philosophy as a subject in High School here -- unfortunate, but that's the case.
Second, we've got a lot of people who simply can't afford to go to college -- unless they want to take on massive debt (which our governments, both Republican and Democrat have been pushing for years) -- particularly if they already have children, a fairly reliable job, etc.
Third, even if you do go to college, a Philosophy class is a crapshoot, as far as instructors go
Outstanding breakdown
Thanks!
Fascinating, very informative educational, and fulfilling especially to one like myself with no real college ed. I would only ask that you get someone to darken your outline on the board. It's been very hard to read on TH-cam or take notes from it on any display screen.
I greatly appreciate your presentation.
You realize this video was uploaded almost a decade ago. How do you think someone is going to darken an outline in it for you?
@@GregoryBSadler By using CGI. Could be a great challenge for someone in the graphics dept. You should remember your wonderful lectures maybe timeless, it is for me and I believe many others.
@@jisiri There is no graphics department. And you can't replace old videos
@@GregoryBSadler Sorry to hear that. Seniors I believe would love to see and hear it. It was likes a sunrise in my mind. Answered tons of questions for an old autodidact like myself. Thanks anyway still I believe in the power of computer graphics even with Vhf tapes, the words or there already. Again, I wish there was a way to make them "timeless", I watched them 3 times in 2 days!
I'd say that one of the things you'll want to do is focus on what he meant by "Existentialist", then look at the broader meaning of the term, and see why he fits the second.
If you search, you'll find lots of web-resources out there about Camus and existentialism.
Does Camus believe in the existence of free will? I heard it explained once that existentialists believe in the existence of free will and hence our ability to freely create meaning for ourselves but that absurdists deny this ability. In your view is this correct? Thanks for the lecture!
Different people mean different things by "free will". There's no real agreement about "absurdists" about anything as far as I can tell, so you'd want to read individual thinkers to see what their positions actually are.
Camus himself does seem to think we have a capacity to choose
A very illuminating presentation. Thank you.
I'm not in America so that's probably why I don't get it, but how can that be? I mean if you do well on your high school exams, and even better if you pick advanced philosophy as one of them, what could possibly stop you from studying philosophy at a university? Is there some kind of mega-deficiency in the number of philosophy departments or what?
Please use a black whiteboard marker in the future; for better visibility.
I like your lectures!!! All the best from a Belgian fan !!!
th-cam.com/video/bl1Ny77mkRw/w-d-xo.html
Hey Greg, i've been enjoying your videos a lót: I think they're ideal (without sacrificing any depth ) for moods in which people like me are just too intimidated (lazy?) to confront the great authors your videos deal with themselves. Alas, I figure this same quality attracts people like me plaguing you with annoying questions like the following. :)
So, while reading The Myth of Sisyphus I cannot shake the feeling that, while I can follow Camus conceptual framework to a good extent, i'm always left a bit uncertain about what exactly constitutes the (essential) conclusion that the world ''doesn't make sense'' or ''is irrational''. (While I can really grasp the ''feeling'' of the absurd, i'm interested here in what precisely is the intellectual content of that conclusion.) I have a few intuitions but still cant really make out which one is close to Camus' starting point (or if they share a common shape). So I know Camus talks about the lack of a great all-encompassing/unifying principle that gives sense to the world. I keep however feeling that i'm still unclear about what that means precisely. In other words, when camus' awakened person is screaming for ''the Why of it all'', what is the thing that precedes that why? What kind of answer is hoped for? Does a irrational world mean a world that is undesirable: a world where suffering is omnipresent and death makes all struggle in vain? Does a irrational world mean a world which we cant understand in it's entirety? Or does a irrational world mean a world where life itself has no purpose (such that a God in whose service and image we lived would solve that problem)?
So in short: what are we talking about precisely when we say that the world doesn't make sense? Do you have any suggestions in the form of passages, other lectures, essays etc zooming in on this fundamental element in his structure ?
(It's not that I don't agree with existential thought and Camus' starting point: to the contrary. What's bothering me is that intuitively I recognize the feeling wholeheartedly, while I know I couldn't explicitly explain in clear terms and without existential jargon why the world ''doesn't make sense'')
ps i've read up to the chapter ''absurd freedom'' but don't want to read further while this notion is still so muddy to my mind.
Sorry for the dense blabbering, bad English and superfluous amount of digital ink.
I'd love to hear from you/ receive some tips!
I've got a core concept video on Camus and his concept of the absurd. I'd start with that
Thank you Dr. Sadler.
You're welcome!
You mean like living a life that's not entirely -- one's view -- "a life", i.e. not what one wants it to be? That would fit in with Camus' ethics
The understanding of Absurd Camus has to be explained by its different aspects of itself.
How does something come into being and the importances is weighed with in the individuals perspective about the issue at hand. Absurd Anywhere, is a wide verity of thinking with different causes that aren't necessary specific on the premise but, rather, by multiple events that the individual experiences. Next is the Intelligence someone has to understand how something comes into being. The discussion proposes that can something big come from something small? Rationalism is the processing of understanding the world and can be a better place of changed.Reasoning to understand something or the world is predicated on the person or set understanding of a concept. If their were set principles in life time and the experiences you have are set components to life, is absurd since everything is not controlled, nor are its nearest elements. In my opinions, I believe pre existing understanding of the knowledge someone has about a subject, sets the foundation to which the larger aspects reaches its conclusion. Although things aren't controlled completely, the understanding of the its primary existence is the footstool of the subject; understanding is completely objective. ( listen to hear more arose the lesson)GN
Hello professor which translation is this and year of the book? Thanks
Another excellent lecture. Sometimes these concepts are very difficult without having someone explain what they mean... one last question, which I'm sure you have been asked to much, where should I began to grasp a more full understanding of Philosophy? Bertrand Russell's History of...Plato, Descartes?
Well, if you want a good history of philosophy, you want Copleston, not Russell. Generally, for one starting to study the history of philosophy, I suggest starting with Platonic dialogues
Okay, thanks.
I started with Socrates , Plato etc and slowly moved to the modern era. It helped me a lot
Russell's history is very very off in alot of areas sadly
@@BBQcheese the Nietzsche part especially. Also his account of Hegel is just terrible. The fundemental problem with his work is he was already in a specific philosophical paradigm (we all are), so his report of certain philosophers are going to be biased on this. But also his account of religious philosophers or events are questionable. He's ok, but looking back on it after looking at more philosophy and history of philosophy, it's not a great account.
hi! sorry if this sounds a bit bizarre or what not, but I have a presentation on Camus and one of my chosen themes is existentialism, and while i have found virtually nothing on Camus's existentialism in the biography we have had to read, before I sit through your three hour lecture (which I will after this is due im just a bit caught on time) do you think this could help me argue Camus was an existentialist? (p.s. your videos are amazing, i watched a few others! thank you for posting)
Have you considered a lecture on Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own?
it's so sad that he doesnt have a proper microphone, I can hear it like this.
Filipe Gomes turn your volume up. Anything to say that’s not complaining?
the stranger was good, and my personal favorite would have to be The Rebel; I liked it even better than Fromms escape from freedom. (which was a good one as well.)
Well, he does so here -- but not in every work of his. The Rebel -- a later work -- criticizes Nietzsche.
In this work, Camus' focus is on criticizing the theistic existentialists, so Nietzsche is pretty far from that group
So, what would you call "soft nihilism"?
I'll check him out. Thanks!