Literary Philosophy #3: Albert Camus

Existential Philosophy Academy and Dokk1 present the third lecture in the series "Literary Philosophy", exploring philosophical literary forms and the interplay between philosophy and literature. This time, existentialist philosopher Albert Camus is in focus.

Lecturer cand.mag. Luka Rudez explores Camus as both author and philosopher, and how his thinking breaks down the distinction between philosophy and literature. Rudez examines how Camus reflects on the philosophical potential of literature through his essays by drawing on literary authors rather than philosophers, and how his own novels and short stories challenge logical argumentation through encounter with the absurd. The discussion concerns whether certain existential ideas necessarily require a literary form to be understood, and whether literature should be understood as inherently philosophical.

Luka Rudez is a cand.mag. in intellectual history and works with humans' relationship to the vegetative and the celestial and their impacts on the political sphere, with particular emphasis on the interconnection of medieval and 20th century philosophy.

The lecture series comprises four sessions with different existentialist thinkers (Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Camus and Simone Weil), each followed by joint discussion.