At work, we host a lot of events. Setting up for each event involves (re)moving tables, setting up chairs, setting up a lectern and projector equipment, testing the sound system, and sometimes setting up recording equipment. Once the event is over, we take it all back down again. Sometimes we feel like we set it [...]
Albert Camus, commenting on a futbol (soccer) game in Algeria. I have no idea the date of this film. In fact, I never thought before about whether there exists any footage of Camus speaking, so this is fascinating to me. It animates someone whom I feel like I know well but have never heard speak. [...]
During the German occupation of France, Albert Camus earned hero status among the French for editing the underground newspaper Combat. It wasn’t until the war was over, however, that more than a handful of people knew it was Camus publishing the journal. Nevertheless, he lived at various times in hiding, using false identity papers. As [...]
Italy won the World Cup, but thanks to the press building up the final match as Zinedine Zidane’s swan song and their inability to wrap their minds around his senseless overtime headbutt, collective cognitive dissonance is all that remains. Few can stop talking about Zidane, but even fewer are saying anything. Roger Cohen’s “Camus and [...]
The 2004 presidential election season was disappointing for many reasons, but not the least of which was the unprecedented public argument that one’s religion is the only source of morality and personal values. The argument is disappointing because it represents an incomplete view of morality. Because no counterargument was ever offered, pop culture in the [...]
This category of entries to nicomachus.net is a collection of notes I’ve taken in the course of my study of the Algerian philosopher Albert Camus. For years I’ve debated whether I should compile these notes into a more systematic essay on Camus. Such an essay would cover, among other topics, his moral theory; his political [...]
Since Sartre is always lumped in with Camus as one of the great literary figures and moral leaders of war-time and post-war France, I thought I should read more by and about Sartre — if only to learn yet another perspective on Camus. “Pick up some of the easy stuff,” I thought. “I’ll read some [...]