Albert Camus On Happiness

Albert Camus brings a brilliant twist to the philosophy of happiness: inevitability.

Before we begin, perhaps a bit of background on me is important. I’m a philosopher of language and morality, originally. But when I went to grad school, I took a class in cognitive neuroscience that opened a few doors for me. I worked in labs, read science books, etc. And oh, could I bore you with the details. My most recent “real jobs” have included research and teaching college and starting startups up, but there’s a thread of a goal here for me: I’m passionate about solving hard problems and understanding the world around me. Oddly, I’m doing both right now, as I write this short essay.

In the past, my main squeeze in philosophy has always been Aristotle — his work is simple and elegant, but incredibly powerful. In the Aristotelian view of human behavior, we train ourselves to do certain things so that we develop the right character. Once we’ve accomplished our goals, we can engage in this activity of happiness and simply just enjoy life.

As part of the Existentialist Book Club, I recently began to get involved with the philosophy of Albert Camus, who says something entirely different about happiness. Namely, that it is inevitable. Is it time to start picking sides, or is there some way to reconcile Camus’…