Re: Suicide and Camus

On Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Campbell Jones wrote:

> Any thoughts about the way that Foucualt's comments on suicide
> relate to Camus???

Well, I would think that F would regard C's attempt at a philosophical
resolution of the problem of suicide as a little, ah, absurd.  
Personally, I'm always torn between seeing it that way and seeing it as a
valiant if doomed attempt to solve the "one truly serious philosophical
problem"....

By the way, in one of the late interviews, F makes a scornful comment
about the intellectual fashion of self-flagellation holding each
individual to be responsible for all of humanity, which I read as a jibe
at Camus's _The Rebel_.  On the other hand, there is something quite
Camusian about F's comments on Iran.  (Or, for that matter, Lutheran:
Here I stand, facing the machine guns bare-chested; I can do no other.)

Matthew

 ---Matthew A. King---Department of Philosophy---York University, Toronto---
    "The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
    suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
 ----------------------------(Michel Foucault)------------------------------

Yeah, how could I forget about that :).  That's from a GIP pamphlet; it's
quoted in Miller's biography.  I've never seen the original text; I'd be
very interested in a translation if one exists.