“Sherman’s book provides an excellent account of Camus’ fortunes and misfortunes in the intellectual realm in France immediately following the war.” (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2009)
“Sherman persuasively argues that what emerges from Camus’s writing is the portrait of a man of courage and decency. Recommended to all academic libraries and university foreign-language departments with strong French programs.” (Library Journal, February 2009)
From the Inside Flap
History (much like his contemporaries) has tended to judge Camus harshly – as mediocre philosopher, conflicted man of the left and, worst of all, apologist for French imperialism. Yet, as David Sherman argues in this rewarding new study, a sensitive reading of the entirety of Camus’s writings reveals both a power and unity of philosophical purpose. The ethico-political sympathies manifested in these writings evidence an integrity that places him among the greatest and most vital humanist voices of our time.
The book covers all of Camus’s significant writings and includes thorough expositions of The Myth of Sisyphus, The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague, and The Rebel. A discussion of the metaphysical and practical connotations of Camus’s celebrated concept of The Absurd lays the foundation for a discussion of the later works, which are considered in the context of Camus’s basic ethical orientation. This, it is contended, harks back (and, with its recent resurgence, forward) to a virtue ethics of sorts. It is argued that Camus’s literary characters are purified phenomenological portraits that reflect the existential temptations of an overwhelmed modern consciousness, and the ethico-political works reflect the efforts of a morally committed consciousness to come to grips with a modern world unable to make good the moral imperative. In the end, it is argued, Camus offers a phenomenological ethics, which is all that is left of virtue ethics when social life has broken down.
From the Back Cover
History (much like his contemporaries) has tended to judge Camus harshly – as mediocre philosopher, conflicted man of the left and, worst of all, apologist for French imperialism. Yet, as David Sherman argues in this rewarding new study, a sensitive reading of the entirety of Camus’s writings reveals both a power and unity of philosophical purpose. The ethico-political sympathies manifested in these writings evidence an integrity that places him among the greatest and most vital humanist voices of our time.
The book covers all of Camus’s significant writings and includes thorough expositions of The Myth of Sisyphus, The Stranger, The Fall, The Plague, and The Rebel. A discussion of the metaphysical and practical connotations of Camus’s celebrated concept of The Absurd lays the foundation for a discussion of the later works, which are considered in the context of Camus’s basic ethical orientation. This, it is contended, harks back (and, with its recent resurgence, forward) to a virtue ethics of sorts. It is argued that Camus’s literary characters are purified phenomenological portraits that reflect the existential temptations of an overwhelmed modern consciousness, and the ethico-political works reflect the efforts of a morally committed consciousness to come to grips with a modern world unable to make good the moral imperative. In the end, it is argued, Camus offers a phenomenological ethics, which is all that is left of virtue ethics when social life has broken down.
About the Author
David Sherman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana at Missoula. He is the author of Sartre and Adorno: The Dialectics of Subjectivity (2007) and co-editor of The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy (2003).
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