Philosophy Now Forum

Read something by Camus. I recommend The Plague, though others prefer to open with The Stranger. Now here's a guy who antagonized everybody.
Camus said something to the effect that ideology must serve humanity, and not the other way around.
He condemned Stalin's Gulags and totalitarianism in the Soviet Union, and that pissed off the Lefties. The prevailing opinions of the Left during Camus' era forbade criticism of Marxist, Socialist, and Communist regimes on the grounds that criticism would delay humanity's progress towards a better world.
He advocated for equitable housing policies and a multi-cultural Algeria, and that pissed of the Righties. At that time it was heresy to proclaim that Africans and Arabs ought to have enjoyed the same rights as the French rulers in Algeria. Camus went so far as to say that when a regime uses totalitarian means, it destroys all hope for a better world.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

'The Plague' and 'The Outsider' are both very good and I would also recommend 'The Fall' and 'The Myth of Sisyphus'.

I've sometimes wondered about his grisly death - was it an accident or did he antagonise the wrong people?

koyaanisqatsi wrote:'The Plague' and 'The Outsider' are both very good and I would also recommend 'The Fall' and 'The Myth of Sisyphus'.

I've sometimes wondered about his grisly death - was it an accident

or did he antagonise the wrong people?[/

quote]

Hi Koy,

Are you a conspiracy theorist? In the past, I contested a conspiracy theory and founded a forum to discuss the claim. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FetzerclaimsDebunk/

Has anyone claimed that Camu's death was not caused by accident? I would like to know what the evidence was for a contrary cause of foul play.

Tom

Sounded to me like Koy was merely speculating, and not asserting either position.

Whats the difference between a conspiracy theorist and an accident theorist?

Camus drank alot, smoked, and simultaneously drove and wrote. So this truck comes along...

Psychonaut wrote:Sounded to me like Koy was merely speculating, and not asserting either position.

Whats the difference between a conspiracy theorist and an accident theorist?

Hi Psy,

I agree that Koy is not making a claim. His statement is a speculation. Is it an insinuation, which is commonly found in the writings of conspiracy theorists?

If I recall correctly, Camus died when his motorcycle went off the road. There can be many causes for such an incident. What basis does Koy have for stating "or did he antagonize the wrong people?" Doesn't either speculation or insinuation require some underlying fact or facts?

It was not my intent to offend Koy. I studied conspiracy theorizing for several years. It has a long history. It is a thought-pattern, which, unfortunately, is becoming more prevelant in the U.S.

He was found with a train ticket for the exact same journey he was making by road. This fact would have become famous in itself because it just shows the fateful decisions we all make.

He'd died in a car accident where he was the passenger.

I heard that the Queen and the Duke of edinburgh did it.

I thought he'd caught the plague but my wife thought he was shot on the beach. There does seem to be a lot of mystery surrounding this man

Well, I am in the middle of Camus' biography. Guess I'll learn how he died at the end... yuk yuk

Whether its an insinuation or not is up to Koy. He might simply be insinuating that its a possibility.

Since you are our resident expert on conspiracy theories would you care to start a thread? I have a few things I could say on the subject, but I don't know where I would start and my knowledge is not comprehensive.

I will say this much, I think we can be certain that people conspire, sometimes they are caught at it (or are they themselves conspired against?!), and I think we can easily establish that there are conspiracies which are not caught. The issue is establishing when a conspiracy is occuring and when it isn't; while we are limited to speculation, and speculation cannot make claims to anything, that does not mean it is not worthwhile.

Also, while we may be able to establish that such things as price-fixing are not, in a given situation, happening, there are still instances where the same effect is achieved with neither party having to communicate, by acting from their own mutual understanding of self-interest. I witnessed this effect myself when working in a petrol station, and observing the prices at nearby petrol stations.

Whats to say? Camus died in a French car crash when he had a train ticket for the same journey. Ironic given his philosophy. If you'd ever driven in France 20 years ago you'd understand why it was not an uncommon event. Its only recently that they've got them to realise that deciding what drinking enough meant was not a Frenchmans right and to slow down.

Psychonaut wrote:Whether its an insinuation or not is up to Koy. He might simply be insinuating that its a possibility.

You're all wrong - I was ruminating!

Did you read any books by Albert Camus? He is very good! You should!