. . .But that's not the whole story about them; read on for a taste of each thinker's thoughts.
From: TWILIGHT of the IDOLS or HOW ONE PHILOSOPHIZES with a HAMMER :
"The idiosyncrasy of . . . philosophers . . . consists in confusing the last and the first. They place that which comes at the end--unfortunately for it ought not to come at all!--namely, the 'highest concepts,' which means the most general, the emptiest concepts, the last smoke of evaporating reality--in the beginning, as the beginning. This again is nothing but their way of showing reverence: the higher must not be allowed to grow out of the lower, must not be allowed to have grown at all. Moral: whatever is of the first rank must be causa sui. Origin out of something else is considered an objection--a questioning of value. All the highest values are of the first rank; all the highest concepts, that which has being the unconditional, the good, the true, the perfect--all these cannot have become and must therefore be causa sui. All these, moreover, cannot be unlike each other or in contradiction to each other. Thus, they arrive at their stupendous concept, 'God.' That which is last, thinnest, and emptiest is put first, as the cause in itself, as ens realissimum. Why did mankind have to take seriously the brain afflictions of sick web-spinners? They have paid dearly for it!"
"Existentialism Is a Humanism" :
"Existentialism is nothing else but an attempt to draw the full conclusions from a consistently atheistic position. Its intention is not in the least that of plunging men into despair. And if by despair one means as the Christians do – any attitude of unbelief, the despair of the existentialists is something different. Existentialism is not atheist in the sense that it would exhaust itself in demonstrations of the non-existence of God. It declares, rather, that even if God existed that would make no difference from its point of view. Not that we believe God does exist, but we think that the real problem is not that of His existence; what man needs is to find himself again and to understand that nothing can save him from himself, not even a valid proof of the existence of God. In this sense existentialism is optimistic. It is a doctrine of action, and it is only by self-deception, by confining their own despair with ours that Christians can describe us as without hope."
"I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: 'In our society any man who does not weep at his mother's funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.' I only meant that the hero of my book is condemned because he does not play the game. In this respect, he is foreign to the society in which he lives; he wanders, on the fringe, in the suburbs of private, solitary, sensual life. And this is why some readers have been tempted to look upon him as a piece of social wreckage. A much more accurate idea of the character, or, at least one much closer to the author's intentions, will emerge if one asks just how Meursault doesn't play the game. The reply is a simple one; he refuses to lie. To lie is not only to say what isn't true. It is also and above all, to say more than is true, and, as far as the human heart is concerned, to express more than one feels. This is what we all do, every day, to simplify life. He says what he is, he refuses to hide his feelings, and immediately society feels threatened. He is asked, for example, to say that he regrets his crime, in the approved manner. He replies that what he feels is annoyance rather than real regret. And this shade of meaning condemns him.
"For me, therefore, Meursault is not a piece of social wreckage, but a poor and naked man enamored of a sun that leaves no shadows. Far from being bereft of all feeling, he is animated by a passion that is deep because it is stubborn, a passion for the absolute and for truth. This truth is still a negative one, the truth of what we are and what we feel, but without it no conquest of ourselves or of the world will ever be possible.
"One would therefore not be much mistaken to read The Stranger as the story of a man who, without any heroics, agrees to die for the truth. I also happen to say, again paradoxically, that I had tried to draw in my character the only Christ we deserve. It will be understood, after my explanations, that I said this with no blasphemous intent, and only with the slightly ironic affection an artist has the right to feel for the characters he has created."
Nietzsche
Sartre
Camus
