SUICIDE IN ALBERT CAMUS’ EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY

BY

MADUABUCHI, RAPHAEL O. PG/MA/07/42992

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA

SUPERVISOR: REV. FR. PROF. B.O. EBOH

JUNE, 2009 i

SUICIDE IN AIBERT CAMUS’ EXISTENTIALIST PHILOSOPHY

A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (MA) DEGREE IN PHILOSOPHY

BY

MADUABUCHI, RAPHAEL .O. PG/MA/07/42992

SUPERVISOR: REV. FR. PROF. B.O. EBOH

JUNE, 2009

ii

APPROVAL PAGE

This dissertation has been approved for the Department of Philosophy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka for the award of Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Philosophy.

By

______REV. FR. PROF. B.O. EBOH INTERNAL EXAMINER (SUPERVISOR)

______PROF. J.C.A AGBAKOBA EXTERNAL EXAMINER (HEAD OF DEPARTMENT)

______PROF. P.C. ONOKALA (DEAN OF FACULTY)

iii

CERTIFICATION

Maduabuchi, Raphael O., a Master of Arts student in the Department of Philosophy,

Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with Registration number

PG/MA/07/42992, has satisfactorily completed the requirements (Coursework and Dissertation), for the award of Master of Arts Degree (MA) in Philosophy. This Dissertation is original and has not been submitted in part or full for any other degree of this or any other university.

------Maduabuchi, Raphael O. Rev. Fr. Prof. Ben. Eboh (Candidate) (Supervisor)

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DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my beloved parents, brothers and sisters.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I appreciate all those who in one way or another assisted me during the course of my

M.A. programme in Philosophy. My profound gratitude goes first to Almighty God for his love, grace, sustenance and wisdom granted to me through out my studies in Nsukka.

I am indebted to my supervisor, Rev. Fr. Prof. B. O. Eboh who painstakingly supervised this work. His kind gestures, paternal solidarity and friendly disposition are very well appreciated.

My gratitude is extended to Prof. J.C. Agbakoba, the Head of Department of Philosophy,

University of Nigeria, Nsukka, under whose administration this work is completed. I am also indebted to all the lecturers in the department especially Rev. Fr. Dr. M.C. Chukwuelobe who supplied most of materials I used for my work. Others are: Prof. Egbeke Aja, Dr. Eneh, Dr.

Areji, Dr. Anyaechie, Dr. Omeh, Dr.Asogwa and Dr. Anih.

I thank in a special way my local ordinary Most Rev. Dr. Valerian Okeke who trained me and recommended this programme to me. I shall ever remain grateful to my parents Mr.& Mrs.

M.C. Maduabuchi who sponsored my education to Master level. Also, I thank my brothers and sisters: Uchenna, Chudi, Ijeoma, Uju and Chinelo for their encouragements and supports.

The memory of my good friends who helped me in the course of this programme would ever remain fresh in my heart. I appreciate my dear friend Emeka Metala for his criticism and emphasis on the vital points. In a special way I remember these people for their care and support:

Rev. Frs Theo. Onoyima, Dr. Peter Akogu, Ben. Agbo, F.O. Njoku, Benedict Ozoemena, Julian

Anaetoh, Richard Mary Umeike, Emeka Onwuama. Others are Bro. Chris. Madubata, Sr.

Enukorah, Dr. Fabian Agudosy, Mr.& Mrs. Livinus Ozoeze Ezife, Mrs. Emeka Ifediba, Mrs.

Meg Oliobi, Mr. Celestine Onuorah,, Mr. Victor Chime, Mr. Tony Ogbonna., Mr. Ifeanyi

vi

Okoye. Others are: Joseph Ikeanyi, Chuka Okoye, Emmanel Ibuot, Tony Ajah, Calistus Ekeh,

Louis Amoke, Emeka Iloabachie, Vitalis Mbachu, Chibuike Ezeah, e.t.c Your kind gestures are deeply appreciated. In a special way, I thank the legionaries especially the members of my presidium Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Presidium for their spiritual support as well as the members of the choir Nkrumah Basilica, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

I extend my gratitude to Jacinta who sacrificed her time and energy to type this work. I appreciate the effort of Mr. Livinus Ezife who binds this work. May God bless them and fulfil all their heart desires.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Approval page ------i

Certification ------ii

Dedication ------iii

Acknowledgement ------v

Abstract ------ix

CHAPTER ONE:

INTRODUCTION ------1

1.1 Background of the Study ------1

1.2 The Statement of Problems ------2

1.3 The Purpose of Study ------4

1.4 Scope of the Study ------4

1.5 Significance of the Study ------4

1.6 Research Methodology ------5

1.7 Clarification of Terms ------5

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW ------11

2.1 Review of Related Literatures ------11

CHAPTER THREE

ALBERT CAMUS ON SUICIDE ------24

3.1 Albert Camus’ Concept of Suicide ------24

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3.2 The Ethics of Absurdity ------28

3.3 The Absurd Man and Creation ------31

3.4 Albert Camus’ Conception of Death ------34

3.5 The Critique of Albert Camus Ethics of Absurdity - - - - 34

CHAPTER FOUR

THE CONCEPTION OF SUICIDE IN ALBERT CAMUS’CULTURAL MILIEU 41

4.1 Some Motives or Reasons for Suicide - - - - - 41

4.2 The Conception of Suicide in Traditional African World-view - - 46

4.3 The Conception of Suicide in Western Culture - - - - 49

4.4 Morality of Suicide ------53

4.5 The Impact of Suicide on the Society - - - - - 56

CHAPTER FIVE

THE RELEVANCE OF ALBERT CAMUS’ CONCEPT OF SUICIDE - 60

5.1 Reappraisal ------60

5.2 Evaluation ------62

5.2 Conclusion ------65

BIBLIOGRAPHY ------69

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ABSTRACT

Albert Camus’ ideology of suicide emanates from human experience of absurdity and metaphysical nihilism. From the frustration of the oppressive social order to the ravaging physical and of psychological effects of indifference of nature to mankind and fallible individual actions, the choice of taking one’s own life becomes clear to be impressed upon us by experience of absurdity or meaninglessness of existence and of human endeavour. This work seeks to clarify if there are justifications for this unpleasant human act. Is suicide real solution to the identified human problems or do they multiply them? Is suicide an end in itself or a means to an end? Is there a justification to this end? Our author, Albert Camus toes the existentialists’ line in his approach to the perennial problem of justifications of suicide. Briefly that since existence precedes essence; there are no sufficient reasons to necessitate the act of suicide. By way of critical analysis, It was discovered that the reasons employed for the act, and by implication, justification of suicide places them at par or even far above human life. Self-preservation is the first precept of natural law. The modern philosophical movement of existentialism admits of life as a supreme value. For this reason, this work is of the view that since the reasons for suicide cannot be commensurate with life itself, they must be dejected as ethically unacceptable.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Life is an absolute value- in a popular parlance, life is sweet. But some people in the society create conditions that make others feel so marginalized that they see themselves as complete failures. Certain situations and circumstances in life can make people feel so much crushed that they constrict their own world into a realm of absurd. Such traumatic experience of people living without hope can be seen in the life of victims of natural disaster and people living with incurable disease like HIV / AIDS. It can also manifest in all forms of personal misfortunes and miseries such as bereavement, loss of social status or hardship. Sometimes, the realities of life can make it so hard that the individual prefers to die than to live. Such a decision may be as a result of systematic and persistent life frustrations. The major factors that can precipitate depressing feeling include: the indifference of nature to human life (eg natural and catastrophic disaster as evident in the cases of volcano, hurricane, earthquake, war, flood, epidemics, drought, storm or famine), bereavement or divorce, childlessness, old age, fatal illness, oppression and injustice, meaninglessness of daily task and its monotonous routine

These problems which we refer to as absurdity or the meaninglessness of the world are one of the central concerns of existentialists. It is the confrontation of human needs with the metaphysical nihilism of the universe. The conception of the world devoid of meaning is a familiar one. Absurdity arouses certain depressing feeling in man. A man bereft of meaning of his existence finds nothing other than contradiction and nonsense. The question of suicide arises where it presents us with illusory freedom from the absurdity or meaninglessness of our

11 existence; but in the end, it is an abdication of our responsibility to confront the absurdity head on.

In the history of philosophy, an attempt to give meaning to human existence is prevalent in the ancient and medieval era where the dignity of human life is conceived in cultural and religious terms. Here, human life is subverted to some other worldly goals either in the sense of not of this world or of it but in some utopian future. Furthermore, the value of human life has been commercialized and abused by the dawn of nationalism and outbreak of scientific and technological revolution in the modern period. The recent discoveries of science and technology like atomic and nuclear weapons constitute a threat to human life. In genetic engineering, issues like human cloning, sterilization, in vitro fertilization, abortion, euthanasia and suicide reduce the dignity of human life. In this regard, human life is treated as a mere instrument, which can be manipulated anyhow at will. Nevertheless, Life is precious in the sense that it is the ultimate and highest value of human existence. The basic fundamental human right is right to life. Man can kill in the case of self defense to protect and preserve his/her life.

Moreover, existentialism is an attempt to restore the dignity of human life in this modern period. The major system of philosophy had rarely paid attention to the unique personal concern of individual. The 19 th century philosophical movement identifies life with existence. The prominent among the existential philosopher is Albert Camus. He expresses that suicide is the only truly philosophical question 1. The critical decision of judging whether life is or not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question in philosophy.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Suicide is a controversial issue in the history of philosophy. Albert Camus’ dimension of suicide operates within the terrain of existentialist ethics. What is the morality of suicide? The

12 problem of absurdity is the most crucial factor in unraveling Albert Camus’ philosophical exposition of suicide. Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life require suicide?

From the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all 2. The fundamental option is: are we going to abandon reason or hope in solace of religious

God? Being and absurdity are among the central the central themes of existentialism which raise the question of human existence in the universe. What is the goal or destiny of human existence?

The fundamental doctrine of this novel philosophy proclaims man’s freedom in the realization of his destiny. Suicide is a voluntary act which emanates from man’s free will and volition. Albert Camus was struck by the possibility of suicide as an assertion of authentic human will in the face of absurdity of human existence and metaphysical nihilism. Thus, to what extent is man free to terminate his life? In other words, does suicide assert the authentic existence of individual selfhood?

The experience of absurdity is prevalent in every society. In an attempt to recover the value of human life in the world, it will tackle the question: how can Albert Camus’ ethics of absurdity be applicable to our contemporary world? In particular, it will be appliedd to Nigeria society.

Every philosophical enquiry emanates within the context of a tradition; Albert Camus operates within the context of Western and African tradition. In view of this, it will analyse the conceptions of suicide in these contexts. Hence, it will be necessary to investigate the relationship between Albert Camus concept of suicide and the conception of suicide in African and Western contexts. In other words, it will tackle the question: Is there any identifiable similarity or dissimilarity between them? Albert Camus’ philosophy is an atheistic

13 existentialism. Unlike the philosophic suicide of existentialist attitude, the most paradoxical and significant existentialism is the one that attribute rational reason to the world.

1.3 Purpose of Study

Suicide has constituted one of the greatest threats to human life. Statistics conducted by experts in U.S.A recently states that suicide is now the third most common cause of death in many parts of the world 4. Highly developed and prosperous countries have higher suicide rates than under developed and poor countries because expectations of life are far higher in the former than in the latter. It is therefore, our objective to draw attention to the crisis of despair, which leads to suicide that is prevalent in every society. This work will undoubtedly expose the basic principles of Albert Camus and establish them as the new perspective through which the absurd feeling will be viewed in human society. Thus, it serves to establish a spiritual courage and metaphysical revolt to any unfavourable situation or circumstances in life.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This research work is restricted to Albert Camus notion of suicide, which is strictly based on rational justification of sacredness of human life. Its suggestions and contemplations are universal to reduce the high-rate of suicide in western world. In particular, it applies to Africa especially Nigeria with reference to the improvement of absurd feeling of life frustration that can make weak minds to contemplate suicide.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of this research work is that its findings offer suggestions that will help to reduce the pessimistic feeling of life frustration and depression which may invariably lead to

14 suicide. Thus, it will aid in building a healthy society where mutual co-operation will reign among the members of the society.

1.6 Research Methodology

In this research, historical approach was employed by which the morality of suicide was traced through the history of philosophy. The expository and analytic methods were employed by which suicide in Albert Camus’ existentialism will be carefully exposed and analysed. It is critical and evaluative too since it makes a critique of Albert Camus concept of suicide.

Data are sourced from library books, journal, periodicals, biographies and internet.

1.7 Clarification of Terms

Before plunging into mainstream of our work, it is pertinent to clarify some basic concepts that form the hinge and spring board of our discussion such as:

i. Suicide

ii. Life ( Existence )

iii. Absurdism or Absurd Society

iv. Absurd man

v. Sacred

vi. Existentialism

vii. Historical Background of Albert Camus

1. Suicide

For in depth knowledge of this concept, etymological definition is necessary.

Etymologically, the term suicide is derived from two Latin words: “sui” meaning “of one self” and “eidium”, meaning “killing”. In other words, suicide denotes “a killing of one self”. It is a

15 direct killing of oneself on one’s own authority. Suicide can be direct or indirect. It is direct when death is intended as an end or a means to an end. On the other hand, indirect suicide is when death is not intended or willed but is only permitted as an after effect of an action. In this case, there is a deliberate exposure of one’s life to serious danger. For instance, a sick person who dies simply by refusing to take proper medication affordable to him. It is less severe than direct suicide.

Suicide is not death sentence ordered by civil authority upon an individual. Socrates was condemned to drink hemlock. He took it and drank. This act is not suicide because he never intended his own death by his own authority. Neither is it martyrdom. According to Chambers dictionary, “a martyr is one who dies for one’s belief” 5. Death is never intended as an end but can only be accepted passively to bring about a proportionate good. But, this lies beyond the scope of our study.

II. Life ( Existence )

A term applies to all living things, plants and animals. It is that which makes existence of all living beings possible. There are two fundamental theories that account for the phenomena of life: vitalistic and mechanistic theories. The vitalistic theory sees life as an absolutely originary phenomenon that is not reducible to matter. On the other hand, mechanistic theory holds that life is a derived phenomenon, which finds in matter all the sufficient reasons for its appearance 6.

But, life is an ultimate reality, which cannot be comprehended through scientific or mechanist investigations.

Human life is the culmination of all other forms of life. Its social, cultural, psychological and spiritual dimension distinguishes it from other forms of life. Man is in control of the life of plant and animals. Suicide as a term is applied to man specifically because man is a being

16 endowed with rationality and freedom of will. Plants and other animals cannot contemplate suicide.

III . Absurdism or Absurd society

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Absurdism is a belief that human beings exist in a world with no purpose or order 7. Albert Camus sees Absurdity as a confrontation of human needs, desire for order, meaning and purpose in life with a blank and unreasonable indifference silence of the universe 8. The feeling of the absurdity arises in many ways: the indifference of nature to human life (e.g natural disaster), the realization of death, the pointlessness of daily task and its monotonous routine---all of which reveal the uselessness of daily life. It can also emanate as a result of anomalies in human condition like divorce, infertility, terminal illness, economic hardship, old age, oppression and injustice.

IV. Absurd Man

The absurd man is man in revolt. He recognizes the contradiction but still live the absurd.

He lives not by ethical rules which are based on justification of higher power. It is a total lack of hope which is quite different from renunciation but a bitter acknowledgement of fact that arouses rebellion on part of individual and as a group 9.

V. Sacred.

The term “sacred” is applied to human life. It means that human life is an ultimate value.

Pope John Paul 11 referred to human life as a penultimate value. According to him, “it is a sacred reality entrusted us, to be preserved with a sense of responsibility” 10 . It means that human life is the highest category of all physical existence. On no account should human life be tampered with. It should be accorded with highest respect and dignity. Albert Camus made

17 people to understand as the editor of Combat Newspaper at France in 1943 that human life is sacred no matter how inexplicable existence of life might be 11 .

IV. Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophy of subjectivity or selfhood, the ego whose fundamental doctrine proclaims man’s freedom in the realization of his destiny. The individual had over the centuries being pushed into the background by system of thought, historical events, and technological thought 12 .

Philosophy for the most part dealt with the technical problems of metaphysics, ethics, and the theory of knowledge in a general and objective manner, which by passed the intimate concerns of people about their destiny. Historical events, particularly wars, showed a similar disregard for the feelings and aspirations of individuals. And technology, which arose as an aid to mankind, soon gathered a momentum of its own, forcing people to fit their lives into the rhythm of machines. Even religion was suffering from the critical impact of rational and scientific thought. Every where men and women were losing peculiarly their human qualities.

Thus, existentialism is a revolt against the absurdity of pure thought which tends to impede the essential selfhood of individual authenticity. Usually, existentialism is termed humanism though it is based on religious faith.

As a philosophical movement, existentialism began in Denmark in the 19th century with

Soren Kierkegaard (1815 – 1855). But in the 20th century, it began in Germany with Fredrerich

Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) and Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976) and reached its highest point in

France with the works of Jean –Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980) who gave it its most systematic as well as its most popular expression. Other major existentialist philosophers include: Karl Jaspers

(1883 – 1969), Gabriel Marcel (1889 – 1973), Maurice Merleau – Ponty (1908 – 1961), Albert

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Camus (1913 – 1960). There were also Italian, Spanish, Russian and Jewish existentialists represented respectively by Abbagnano, Unamuno, Berdyaev, and Buber.

The common themes of existentialist amidst others include: Subjectivity, Freedom of choice, Being and Absurdity, Anxiety, Danger, Dread, Anguish, Suffering, Death, Authentic and

Inauthentic forms of existence. Existentialists express these ideas in their works inform of philosophical treatises, essays, novels and plays.

V. Historical Background of Albert Camus

An existentialist philosopher, French-Algerian Journalist, atheist, play-wrighter and novelist was born on 7 th Nov. 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. He was educated at the Locale Ecole

Communale, Grand Lycee High School and University of Algiers, but his studies were interrupted by his ill-health. He undertook a thorough exegesis of human condition. As an editor of Combat Newspaper in 1943 at France, he often calls upon people to act in accordance with strict moral principle. It was during this period that he formalized his philosophy that human life is sacred no matter how inexplicable existence of life might be. He died on 4 th Jan.1960 in a ghastly motor accident in France.

His works include the philosophical Treatises: The Myth of Sisyphus1942 and The Rebel

1951.His three novels are: The Stranger 1941, The Plague 1947, and The Fall 1956. A Happy

Death (posthumous publication) 1973.His Famous plays are: Caligula 1945 and Just Assassin

1905.

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END NOTES

1.Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus& Other Essays , (New York: Vintage Book Random House Publishers,1955), p.3.

2.Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essay .p.89.

3.Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essay , p.5.

4.Erwin Stengel, Suicide and Attempted Suicide , (New York: Penguin Book, 1964) p.13

5.E.M Kierkpatric Chambers Twentieth Dictionary , (Edinburgh: War Chamber Ltd, 1983)., p.117

6.Batista Mondin, Philosophical Anthropology , (Rome: Urban University Press,1985)., p.36

7. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary ed. by Sally Wehmeier et al, 7 th Edition, (Oxford : University Press,2006).,p.6

8.Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus .,p.6

9.C.S Wyatt, The Existentialist Premier ,www.tameri.com/csw/exist/camus.shmltl, 2008,retrieved on 01/ 9 / 08, p.10

10.John Paul II, Vitae Magazine ,Vol.3, 1995 p.4

11.C.S Wyatt, The Existentialist Premier , p.2

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The Review of Related Literature

Suicide poses a difficult question answered differently by different philosophers. Albert

Camus undertakes to answer the question of judging whether life is or not worth living. In this, he sees suicide as the fundamental question of philosophy. In view of this; we shall review the works of some philosophers through various epochs, who tried in their various capacities to solve this philosophical problem of suicide.

In the ancient period, there was a relaxed attitude towards the whole concept of suicide.

But, we shall review the works of Plato and Aristotle. A reading of Phaedo suggests that Plato was against the practice, in as much as he allows Socrates to defend the teaching of the Orphics, who believed that human body was the property of God, and thus self-harm was a direct offence against divine law. Hence, he expresses a guided enthusiasm that suicide is wrong because it presents our releasing our souls from our bodies which the gods have placed upon us as a form of punishment. Suicide is thought not to be right because man is a prisoner, who must not open the door of his prison and run away. 1

Here, one has to understand that man is made up of three entities: body, mind, and soul.

The body is the material aspect of man whereas the mind is the spiritual element. The soul is the life force which unites both the mind and body together into one entity called man. The Orphic –

Pythagorean influence on Plato is most evident in his conception of the nature of the soul.

Through series of re-incarnations, the soul will be able to achieve final liberation or release from the body. One cannot quicken this release by suicide. The teaching of the Orphism is similar to

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African belief in re-incarnation. Thus, the author’s idea of suicide is dogmatic because it is based on the ancient Greek religious doctrine of Orphism.

Moreover, in the law, Plato argues that suicide is an act of cowardice or laziness undertaken by individual too delicate to manage life’s vicissitude. The work saw suicide as one of the capital offence which man imposes on himself in the spirit of slothfulness and abject cowardice. And it advocates that the corpse of the culprit should be treated with scorn which will serve as a deterrent for those who may contemplate such act. Though the author detested suicide, he, nevertheless, recognized some exception to this principle:

a. When one is acting in obedience to any legal decision of his state. b. When one is faced by pressure of some excruciating and unavoidable misfortune. c. When one has fallen into some irremediable disgrace that he cannot live with 2.

Ordinarily, suicide is against nature. This view expresses that it is an act of abject cowardice undertaken by individual too delicate to manage life’s vicissitude. But, I do not understand why Plato went further in his Law to consider suicide on the basis of some excruciating and unavoidable misfortune or irremediable disgrace that he cannot live with. David

Hume expressed similar enthusiasm in his unpublished essay on suicide as we shall see in modern period. It is a contradiction of his initial stance. Plato’s assertions in these two works are contradictory. Phaedo expresses that our souls are placed in our bodies as a form of punishment.

So no extent of suffering, hardship or misfortune can warrant the release of our souls from our bodies which the gods have placed upon us as a form of punishment. The exception to the principle expressed in the Plato’s Law is untenable. Besides, the moral virtue or value of suffering can override the material benefit one derives in any situation.

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In the Politics , Aristotle condemns suicide, though for quite a different or far more practical reasons, in that it robbed the community of the services of one of its members. Man is a political animal who cannot survive in isolation without others. He expresses this idea categorically as follows: “Nature has endowed man with different capabilities to serve the needs of each other in the society” 3.

The author emphasizes the social roles and obligations of individual members of the society which suicide deprives its members. Although this view outlines the individual’s social roles and obligations which contribute to the common good of the society; it sometimes negates the subjective selfhood of individual authenticity when it is not integrated properly. Human beings should not be seen as a mere object or machine useful for its utility.

Hence, in the Nicomachean Ethics , he outlines that suicide is a wrong to the state. The culprit is guilty of an offence against the state as is evident in this view, “a man who cuts his throat in a fit of anger is voluntarily doing contrary to the right principle, what the law does not allow; therefore he is acting unjustly towards the state’’ 4.

The state imposes a penalty and a kind of dishonour in order to deter such act. The work made us understand that suicide contravenes against law and order in the society. One can observe that the psychological trauma and tension aroused by suicide disrupt the order and sanity in the society. On the other hand, the author does not go further to outline the nature of this wrong or specific vice that the individual exhibits.

What is perhaps most striking about Plato’s and Aristotle’s texts on suicide is the relative absence of concern for individual well-being or autonomy. Both limit the justification for suicide largely to considerations about individual’s social roles and obligation. Moreover, the individual

23 well-being and autonomy are necessary for authentic earthly existence. And this leads us in to the medieval period.

In the middle ages, the advent of Christianity condemned suicide at the council of Arles in 452 AD as the work of devil 5. We shall review the works of St. Augustine and Thomas

Aquinas. In the City of God , Augustine saw the Christian prohibition on suicide as a natural extension of the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill is to be taken as forbidding self- destruction, especially as it does not add thy neighbour” 6.

Hence, the work expresses that no passage in the scripture can be found enjoining or permitting suicide either in order to hasten our entry into immortality or to avoid temporal evil.

And as such, no one may take his own life. Furthermore, in the Summa Theologica , Aquinas expresses that suicide is wrong because it is against God, nature and the community. The author defends his position based on these three grounds above. Life is a gift of God to man and is subject to his power. Therefore, whoever takes his own life sins against God for it belongs to

God alone to pronounce sentence of life and death, “To kill privately, whether the victim be oneself or another is to usurp God’s power… Our life is given us not to own and to dispose of as we choose, but to use for God’s glory and our salvation”7. Suicide is against the law of nature.

Everything naturally loves and keeps itself in being but suicide is contrary to the inclination of nature. Moreover, it is a sin against the community because everyman is part of the community and so, as such, he belongs to the community.

The scholastic conception of suicide is highly dogmatic because it is deep rooted in

Christian doctrine. Aquinas’ work is more elaborate than that of Augustine. It goes further to explore the negative influence of suicide on nature and community. Nature abhors suicide. This can be seen in the traumatic effect of suicide on the community. Hence, the Thomistic natural

24 law stance dominates until modern period when it came under increasing attack as suicide was examined through the lens of science, sociology and psychology 8. David Hume gave voice to this approach with a direct assault on the Thomistic position in his unpublished essay “on suicide” (1783).

Based on this fact, we shall review the works of David Hume, Thomas Hobbes and

Arthur Schopenhauer on suicide in the modern period. David Hume in his unpublished essay

“On Suicide” (1783) saw traditional attitudes of suicide as muddled and superstitious. It proclaims man’s right to dispose of his own life. The elements and other inanimate parts of the creation carry out their action without their own interest and situation, men may employ every faculty, with which they are endowed, in order to provide their course, happiness and preservation, “It is not encroachment on the office of providence to disturb or alter these general laws. Just as God permits its to divert rivers for irrigation, so too ought he permits us to divert blood in our veins”9.

The work expresses that a man who retires from life does no harm to society nor violate his duties towards himself or other people. Reciprocity may require that we benefit the society in exchange for the benefits it provides, but we are not obliged to do small good to the society at the expense of a great harm to ourselves. Thus, sickness, old age, and other misfortunes can make life sufficiently miserable that the continued existence is worse than death. Suicide is justified based on this ground.

One can see that David Hume is being influenced by the revolution of modern period when the strong hold of Christianity lost its tie. The development of experimental science shaped the author’s ideology. The negative effect of science and technology delegates man to the level of machine which impedes the authentic existence of individual selfhood. Hence, the author

25 conceives utility as the criterion of virtue where human reason is the slave of passion. This contravenes against the stoic ethics which enjoins man to act according to reason. The stoics maintain that man should suppress his natural feeling, passions and emotion. On the other hand,

David Hume’s ethics sees morality as acting according to one’s natural feelings, inclinations and tendencies 10 . That is why he affirms suicide as a courageous act of honour.

The work made a very good allusion that we benefit society in the exchange for the benefit it provides. But, I think that David Hume’s conception is faulty. In the first instance, human life should not be equated with the life of animals and other inanimate things because man is the only animal endowed with reason and intelligence. Human nature transcends other material things in the universe. The essential feature of man is existence. Human life should not be tempered at will no matter the circumstance or situation. The supremacy of human life is such that one can kill in an extreme case of self defence in order to preserve his/her life. As such, human life is not determined by pleasure and enjoyment of the good things of the world. Besides, the existentialists express that existence precedes essence. In that, man first of all exists in order to define his essence. One has to know that no condition is permanent. It is evident that some pleasurable things can turn out into a bitter experience in future.

In addition, Thomas Hobbes rejected the right of individuals to take their life. Hence, he adopted the natural law stance. In his work: The Leviathan , he proclaims that natural law forbids everyman to do that, which is destructive of his life, or take away the means of preserving the same. The right of nature is the liberty each man hath, to use his own power, for the preservation of his own nature, that is to say, of his own life. In his idea of social contract, he expresses that man shall think it necessary, as for peace and defence of himself to lay down this right to all things and be contented with so much liberty against other men.

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But, there be some rights which no man can be understood by any word, or other signs, to have abandoned or transferred. A man cannot lay down the right of them that assault him by force, to take away his own life, because he cannot be aimed thereby at any good to himself 11 .

Thomas Hobbes conception of suicide is derived basically from the law of nature. And the authority of civil law is derived from the law of nature. Once the individuals have decided to renounce their rights and form a civil society, they must be guided and abide by law. For him, man can renounce all his rights except his right to life. Thus, suicide for him is against the law of nature. It is evident that Thomas Hobbes was just reiterating the ideas of Aquinas.

Schopenhauer adopted the legacy of David Hume aimed at refuting her current arguments against suicide. In his Essay on Suicide , he affirms suicide as a courageous act of honour, the chief of all remedies for a troubled mind. The author expresses that amidst blessings that nature gives to man none is greater than an opportuned death; and the best of it is that every one of us can avail himself of it. As soon as the terrors of life reach the point at which they outweigh the terror of death, man will put an end to his own life 12 . He affirms suicide so much without committing the act.

This work saw the struggle with that sentinel as in consequence of the antagonism between the ills of the body and that of the mind. Hence, it attacks all current arguments against suicide especially the clergy of monotheistic Jewish religion. He classifies them as weak sophism which can be easily refuted. Even the state criminal law stance on suicide, he regards it as ridiculous, “For what penalty can frighten a man who is not afraid of death itself? If the law punishes people for trying to commit suicide, it is punishing the want of skill that makes the attempt a failure”.13

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Thus, it expressed categorically that though Aristotle declared suicide to be an offence against the state, but Stobeus exposed in the peripatetic philosophy that good man should free life when his misfortunes become too great; the bad man, likewise, when he is prosperous. For him, the only valid reason against suicide is on the score of morality in that it thwarts the attainment of the highest moral aim which substitutes one that is merely apparent.

Schopenhauer is highly prejudiced against the Jewish Christian prohibition on suicide to the extent that he exceeds the boundary into ridiculing the prohibition of the state criminal law against suicide. Once there is any state legislation of law, it binds in conscience if it is not contrary to the law of nature. There is no society without laws. Hence, the argument does not hold water. His argument against suicide which is based on the denial of the attainment of highest moral aim which substitutes one that is merely apparent is self-contradictory because he had earlier affirmed suicide as an honourable act which left the sympathizers with admiration. It is good to note that the virtue of suffering can lead to the attainment of the highest moral aim.

One may say that Schopenhauer’s conception of suicide is based on his grim and pessimistic view of life.

In the twentieth century, suicide was the central concern of the existentialists, who saw the choice to take one’s life as impressed upon us by our experience of absurdity or meaninglessness of the world and of human endeavour. 14 In The Myth of Sisyphus and other

Essays , Albert Camus contended that suicide tempts us with the promise of an illusory freedom from the absurdity of our existence. But, it is in the end an abdication of our responsibility to confront or embrace the absurdity head on.

Suicide is an escapist way of responding to the absurdity of human existence. Killing yourself amounts to confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it. It carries the problem of absurdity to its logical conclusion 15

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He illustrated this absurdity in The Myth of Sisyphus . The absurd hero Sisyphus does not try to escape his task, but instead perseveres and in so doing resists the lure of suicide. The work saw the goal of absurdism in establishing whether suicide is necessary in a world without God.

For him, suicide is the rejection of freedom. Camus thinks that fleeing from the absurdity of reality into illusions, religion or death is not the way out. Instead of fleeing the absurd meaninglessness of life, we should embrace life passionately. Likewise, in the work: Being and

Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre was struck by the possibility of suicide an assertion of authentic human will in the face of absurdity. The work expresses that it will be in vain for us to resort to suicide in order to escape this necessity.

Suicide cannot be considered as an end of life which should be the unique foundation…If I escape death, or if I “misfire” should I not judge that my suicide was cowardice? Will the outcome not show me that the other solutions were possible? But since these solutions can be only my own projects, they can appear only if I live. 16

The work saw suicide as an absurdity which causes my life to be submerged in the absurd experience of life. These remarks are derived from his consideration of life. This is because the being for itself is the being whose being is in question, since the being itself is the being which always lays claim to an “after”, there is no place for death in the being for itself. Thus, Jean-Paul

Sartre rejects suicide from his conception of death. He sees death as a meaningless absurdity which impedes our freedom to exist 17 .

Existentialists’ ideas of suicide are meaningful because they pertain to human experience of life. Existentialism is a revolt against the absurdity of pure thought and religious ideology.

The existentialists’ opposition to suicide accepts the legacy of Hume, in that they recognize the authority of individual persons to make their own choice, but in accepting this gift of autonomy they refute the notion that suicide could be a good thing in any circumstance. And as such, they

29 have a better understanding of suicide. The freedom which human beings have is delimited in the existentialists’ world by the need to act responsibly and always in good faith. And, suicide in this schema would be an absurdity which causes my life to be submerged in the absurd experience of life.

In the contemporary period, the most important contributions in the analysis of suicide have come from sociologists and psycho analyses. Emile Durkheim in his famous work: Suicide a Study in Sociology explores the social dimension of suicide. Suicide for him can be understood in reference to the relationship between individual with the society. In this, he classifies suicide under three categories as egoistic, altruistic, and anomie suicide. 18

Egoistic suicide is a personal isolation consequent upon a lack of meaningful social integration of the individual into society or family life. The work cites an example with the superiority of Protestantism with respect to suicide which results from its being a less strongly integrated church than Catholic Church.

Altruistic suicide occurs as a result of an over integration of the individual by society.

The individual is too rigorously governed by customs and habits. It can result from the individuals taking their own life because of higher commandment, either those of religious sacrifice or unthinking political allegiance.

On the other hand, anomie suicide is the failure of society to bide by law and order.

When the society is in the chronic state in the modern economy, it can result to anomie suicide i.e. people taking their lives as a result of economic hardship. It gives an instance with sudden wealth as stimulative of suicide on the ground that the newly enriched individual is unable to cope with the new opportunities afforded him. The same type of situation occurs in conjugal anomy of divorce.

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There is the need for the proper integration of individual in the society as well as regulation and control of individual’s behaviour by the society. But, suicide is not restricted only to social structures. Hence, social and psychopathological explanations are complementary for the better understanding of suicide.

Nevertheless, in the work: Suicide and Attempted suicide (1964), Professor Stengel a psychiatrist conceived on the average that one third of people who commits suicide have been suffering from a neurosis or psychosis or a severe personality disorder, depressive illness or melancholia. 19 The work expresses that people who commits suicide are emotionally unstable. It distinguishes between suicide in which self destruction is the only or main intention, and the attempted suicide into which other motives enter.

From the over-view of philosophers’ works on suicide, it is evident that suicide is a sin against God, nature, the state and the community which one belongs. It is also seen as psychological and social problem. Those who commit or attempt suicide are not in their right state of mind. In a chronic state, some people commit suicide as a result of hallucination or depressive illness or severe personality disorder. The social dimension of suicide is such that those who had lost their loved one through suicide suffer from psychological trauma of depression. The society should detect and help those with suicidal tendency. Contrary to this, suicide is sometimes conceived as a courageous act of honour in certain circumstance. But there is still the need to explore other areas of suicide which is relevant to our work

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END NOTES

1. Plato, The Dialogue of Plato , ed, by B. Jowett, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953)., p.386.

2. Plato, The Law , translated by Trevor J. Saunders, (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1970)., p. 391.

3. Aristotle, Politics,( Middlesex: Penguin Classics, 1962)., p. 28.

4. Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, Trans. By J.A.R. Thompson, (London: Penguin Classics, 1955)., p.201

5. Wikipedia, History of Suicide in the Free Encyclopedia , http: //en. Wikipedia. Org / wiki/History of suicide retrieved 5th June, 2008., p.5

6. St. Augustine, The City of God , ed. By Vernon Bourke,( New York: Doubleday Publishers, 1958)., p.55.

7. St. Thomas Aquinas, A Tour of the Summa , ed. by Paul J. Colenn, (New York: Tan Books and Publishers. Inc. 1978)., p. 228.

8. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ,http://Plato.Standford.edu/entries/suicide , retrieved on 18 th July, 2008, p7.

9.David Hume, Essay on Suicide , Version 1.0, [email protected] , 1995, retrieved on 22 nd Aug. 2008, p.34.

10.David Hume, The Treatise of Human Nature ,(London: Aldine Press,1956).,p.145

11.Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan , ed. by Michal Oakeshott, (New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., 1962)., p. 103.

12.Authur Schopenhaur, Essay on Suicide , www. springlink. com/ content/ VI657741140/m108 , retrieved on 22 nd August 2008 p.2.

13 Author Schopenhauer, Essay on suicide , p.3.

14. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , p.1

15. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays , p.5

16. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness , (New York: Washington Square Press, 1956)., p. 687.

17.Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness ,p.615.

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18. Emile Durkheim, Suicide a Study in Sociology , (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1970)., p.15.

19. Erwin Stengel , Suicide and Attempted Suicide , (London: Penguin Bk, 1964)., p.59.

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CHAPTER THREE

ALBERT CAMUS ON SUICIDE

3.1 Albert Camus Concept of Suicide

Albert Camus sees suicide as the only truly philosophical question. Judging whether life is or not worth living amounts to raising the fundamental question in philosophy. Life is a penultimate value in human existence. This re-echoes the famous existentialists’ claim that existence precedes essence. Hence, other questions in philosophy whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards.

Albert Camus conception of suicide stems from absurdity of human existence and metaphysical nihilism 1. The absurd arises when the need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world. It is the confrontation of human needs, desire for order, meaning and purpose in life with a blank and unreasonable indifference silence of the universe. The absurd feeling arises when “my appetite, for the absolute or unity meets the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle” 2 He expresses this absurd feeling as thus:

A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar one. On the other hand, in a world suddenly devoid of illusion and light, man feels like an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or hope of a promised land. 3

The absurd feeling is that divorce that desires and the world disappoints, my nostalgia for unity, this fragmented universe and the contradiction that binds them together. Other existential philosophers analyse the absurd in a similar way. Heidegger considers the human condition coldly and announces that existence is humiliated. Hence, he expresses that the facticity of man consists in the fact of his being thrown there in the world without his consent which reveals his

34 limitation. This includes also the fact that his past is beyond his control. The world can no longer offer anything to the man filled with anguish. A man bereft of meaning of his existence finds nothing other than contradiction and nonsense. The aspects of this mode of existence are boredom when the ordinary man strives to squash it in him and benumb it (bereft) extremely unhappy and lonely, terror when the mind contemplates death. Kierkegaard’s fatal illness: that malady that leads to death with nothing following it. The Sickness Unto Death portrays the feeling of despair as sickness that leads to death. Furthermore, he classifies despair into two categories: despair as sin and despair as sickness. Despair as sin falls within the Christian category of sin which is classified as spiritlessness, weakness and defiance. And despair as sickness leads to the death of the spirit. It is unfortunate that some people anchored hope in

Christian religious God which is not the way out. Zarathustra’s great outburst against the eternal will in Nietzsche’s Joyful Wisdom illustrates the awful experience of irregularity and contradiction of Judeo-Christian faith. All these anomalies emanate from indescribable universe where contradiction, antinomy, anguish, or importance reigns 4.

Absurdity arouses certain depressing feeling in man. This feeling of the absurdity manifests in various ways such as the indifference of nature to man as in the case of natural or catastrophic disaster like earthquake, bereavement and realization of death, pointlessness of daily life and its monotonous routine-all of which reveal the uselessness of daily life. It may also emanate from oppression and injustice in human society. Furthermore, one can see the feeling of absurdity evident in all sorts of personal misfortunes or miseries

Suicide is a very negative response to the absurd feeling. Suicide aims solely at destroying the self; it is also an act of aggression against others because an individual cannot live in solution from his social matrix. Killing yourself implies absence of any profound reason for

35 living, the insane character of human agitation and the uselessness of suffering. It carries the problem of absurdity to its logical conclusion. In line with this, men who die by their own hand consequently follow to its conclusion their emotional inclination. Suicide is an escapist way or act of cowardice or laziness undertaken by individual too delicate to manage life’s vicissitude. It amounts to confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it 5. Suicide is plain when it is contemplated and prepared within the silence of the heart, as in a great work of art with a deliberate act of self damage which the person committing the act could not be sure to survive.

Other form of suicide is philosophical suicide which is perpetrated by other philosophers.

It is an attempt to describe and deal with this problem of the absurdity either by abandoning reason and turning to God as in the case of Kierkegaard or elevating reason and ultimately arriving at ubiquitous Platonic forms. The crime of transcendent absolutists is the subversion of human life to some other worldly goal either in the sense of not of this world or of it but in some utopian future. In the name of such goals nihilism does not hesitate to murder and in this way deny the absolute value of life. Hence, in so doing they align themselves with man’s eternal enemy-death. The absurdity of human existence does not require one to abandon reason or seek illusory hope in the solace of religion. For him, the absurdity is devoid of hope which abandons the daily preoccupation with earthly existence. Hope is a leap into the eternal world which provides some illusory freedom or escape from the problem of the absurdity. In this, man tries to escape the universe of which he is the creator. Hence, existential philosophers deify what crushes them and find reason to hope in what impoverishes them as is evident in Kierkegaard and

Jaspers.

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Kierkegaard leaps into faith in his classification of the three dialectical process of essential selfhood of individual authenticity. The ethical and religious stages are impregnated with the doctrine of Christian religious faith. This is in line with the philosophical thought of mediaeval scholars. The medieval philosophers confuse philosophy with theology where philosophy is seen as the handmaid of theology. Likewise, Karl Jaspers’ existentialism is impregnated with Christian doctrine. There is a religious and mystical tone in his use of the concept of transcendence. For him, man is striving towards transcendence in his struggle against the odds of life. 6 He seems to believe that salvation will come through philosophical faith in transcendence. Other philosophers express similar idea. Plato escapes the absurdity with his intuitive realism, Parmenides plunges thought into one. Man is left powerless to realize the transcendents incapable of plumbing the depth of experience. Thus, the absurdity has lost its true aspect, its human and relative character, which are opposition, laceration and divorce in order to enter eternity. Suicide, then, must be rejected for without man, the absurdity cannot exist. A man who has become conscious of the absurdity has to realize that absurdity is not real in the sense that it cannot exist independently on its own outside man and the world. The contradiction must be lived, reasoned and its limits must be acknowledged, without hope. He expresses this idea clearly as follows:

I know that in order to keep alive, the absurd cannot be settled; it escapes suicide to the extent that it is simultaneously awareness and rejection of death…That revolt gives life its value. Spread out over the whole length of a life, it restores its majesty to that life 7

Absurdity is a facticity which belongs to human existence. And since absurdity is a facticity of human existence, one cannot escape it by religion, illusion or suicide. Suicide carries the problem of absurdity to its logical conclusion which constitutes a finitude. But, the absurdity

37 cannot be accepted, it requires constant confrontation. Camus conceives the meaning of life in the midst of this problem of the absurdity. The meaning of life is in its existence. Martin

Heidegger expresses that the important feature of man is his existentiality. Although man cannot get rid of his human limitations, he can only modify them to suite his existence.

3.2 The Ethics of Absurdity

Albert Camus establishes the ethics of absurdity as the absolute value of human life. He expresses that human life is sacred no matter how inexplicable existence of life might be. Man has to confront and change any unfavourable situation or circumstance in life. Revolt is man’s proper response to the problem of absurdity. It is a spirit of opposition against any perceived unfairness, oppression, or indignity in human condition. This is what he exemplifies in his two

Philosophical Treatises: The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Myth de Sisyphe, 1942) and The Rebel (l’

Homme Revolte)

On the individual level, The Myth of Sisyphus depicts the Sisyphean spirit of defiance in the face of the absurdist problem. Sisyphus is a figure of Greek mythology who has the urge to live irrespective of the circumstances. As an absurd hero, he stole the secrets of the gods, deified

God and put death to chains so that no man needed to die. Pluto the god of death could not endure the site of his deserted empire. But, when death was finally liberated from man by Pluto and it came for time of Sisyphus to die, he concocted a deceit which made him escape the underworld. Finally, captured, the gods decided on his punishment. For all eternity, he would have to push a rock up a mountain on the top, the rock rolls down again and Sisyphus has to start all over again ad infinitum 8.This absurd task is enough to fill one’s mind with anguish but one can imagine Sisyphus happy executing his punishment. Hence, Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death and is condemned to a meaningless task. He

38 did not commit suicide but rather tried to confront the problem courageously. Thus, to embrace

“the absurd” implies embracing all that the unreasonable world has to offer.

Furthermore, Camus presents Sisyphus’ ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices.

The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious. Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent… 9

Camus is interested in Sisyphus’ thoughts when he was marching down the mountain, to start anew. This is the tragic moment, when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. Though he does not have hope but he is happy carrying out his task – an epitome of spiritual courage and metaphysical revolt par excellence. The certainty of his fate frees him to recognize the absurdity of his plight and to carry out his actions with a nod to the similarity cursed Greek hero Oedipus. Hence, Camus extended his theory to consider other oppressive conditions in the society.

Rebellion on a larger possibility and collective action, it is a spirit of opposition against any perceived unfairness, oppression, or indignity in the human condition. Albert Camus’ philosophical Treatise – The Rebel (L’Home Révolté, 1951) portrays that revolt is a peaceful evolutionary process of revolution 10 . In a sense, rebellion begins with recognition of boundaries, or limits that define one’s essential selfhood which must not be infringed. In other words, revolt is an act of conscientiousness for the common good of all as well as the individual. He expresses that rebellion against any oppressive order, whether cosmic or social, is to promote a sense of human community. The rebel derives his justification in using the term community. It is the small part of existence that can be realized on earth through mutual understanding of men. Since

39 rebellion begins with recognition of human community and a common dignity, it cannot without betraying its own true character, treats others as if they are lacking in that dignity or not in a part of that community 11. Thus, the work is a reflection on the nature of freedom and rebellion and philosophical critique of revolutionary violence.

The Rebel is largely an historical survey and critique of those ideologies of revolutionary absolutism supporting modern dictatorship and political terrorism. This is against Hegel’s

Reason in History which glorifies the state and power over personal morality and social ethics. In this, Marxism co-opts with Hegel and extends his theories to allow any means to an end. In other words, the end justifies the means. Camus condemns Marxism-Leninism and denounces emphatically unrestrained violence as a means of national liberation. One has to note on this issue that humanism and equality were very important to Camus, not just an artificial organization. Thus, it is remarkable, and indeed surprising, how closely Camus philosophy of revolt, despite the author’s fervent atheism and individualism, echoes Kantian ethics with its prohibition against treating human beings as means and its idea of the human community as a kingdom of ends.

This new morality denies servitude or slavery, falsehood and terror because it kills human solidarity with others in the society. Slavery perpetuates the silent hostility that separates the oppressor from the oppressed instead of the implicit and untrammeled dialogue through which we come to recognize our similarity and consecrate our destiny. A man who lies has shut himself from other men. In this, he expresses that falsehood proscribed on a slightly lower level, murder and violence, which impose definitive silence. Camus conceives that terror, violence or murder is neither utilitarian as the purely historical attitude would have it. Thus, rebellion in principle for him is a protest against death. Its central objective is to introduce the unity into the world entirely

40 on its own through decree of sincerity, innocence and justice. The principle of rebellion is common to all men which brings to light measure and limit. Rebellion is a search for moderation throughout history and its eternal disturbances.

Albert Camus idea of revolt is further expressed in his novel – The Plague (La Peste,

1947). It portrays French resistance against the Nazi occupation of France during the Second

World War in 1943. An allegorical novel and fictional parable of the Nazi occupation and duty of revolt, and by lecture tours to the United States and South America. It stresses the need for friendship and mutual co-existence in the community 12.

3.3 The Absurd Man and Creation

The absurdity exists amidst man and creation. The absurd man recognizes the contradiction but still lives the absurd. He lives not by ethical rules as they are all based on a higher power or justification. It is not an outburst of relief or joy, but rather a bitter acknowledgement of fact. “Living the absurd means a total lack of hope which is not the same as renunciation and a conscious dissatisfaction which is not the same as juvenile anxiety.” 13

Furthermore, in the work: The Myth of Sisyphus , Camus goes on to present examples of

the absurd life. He begins with Don Juan, the serial seducer who lives the passionate life to the

fullest. For Don Juan, there is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short

lived and exceptional. On the other hand, in a real moral sense, it is a negative response to the

absurdity. The next example is the actor, who depicts ephemeral lives for ephemeral fame. The

actor demonstrates to what degree appearing creates being. Hence, in those three hours he travels

the whole course of dead-end path that the man in the audience takes a life time to cover. He

cited another example with the conqueror, the warrior who forgoes all promises of eternity to

41 affect and engage fully in human history. He chooses action over contemplation, aware of the fact that nothing can last and no victory is final.

Hence, he expounded this idea in his first novel of the Absurd – The Stranger (1941). The setting is Algeria society. The Stranger (I’ Stranger) is the story of an honest atheist (Meursault) who is willing to accept things as it happens in his life. In an existential term, he is authentic to himself. He expresses human nature as follows:

I have never been able really to regret anything in my life. I’ve always been far too much absorbed in the present moment, or immediate future, to think back. Of course, in the position into which I had been forced, there was no question of my speaking to anyone in that tone. 14

There are three deaths which mark the beginning, middle, and the end of the story. The first is the death of his mother at home which marks the start of Meursault downfall. In the middle of the tale, is his apparent murder of the Arab. The Arabs were traditionally the target of racism in Algiers. The culture and religion of the Arabs were deemed simple and barbaric. One day, walking towards a cool stream, where the sea and sun meet Meursault is blocked by an

Arab. It seems the Arab draws a knife, as Meursault sees a flash of light from the blade; he then pulls the trigger five times believing this to be an act of self-defence. Killing an Arab was a minor offence, but not seeking Christian forgiveness or mourning properly for his mother is far worse crime. Meursault does not believe in God, but he cannot lie because his is true to himself even when his lawyer tries to make a better case out it. He was indifference and lukewarm towards it.

I wished he had stayed longer and I could have explained that I desire his sympathy, not for him to make a better job of my defence, but if I might put so, spontaneously. I could see that I got on his nerves he couldn’t make me out, and, naturally enough, this irritated him 15.

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This inability to falsify empathy condemns him to death, while Meursault allegedly executed for killing an Arab, he is hated for not expressing deep emotion when his mother died.

Meursault has faith in nothing except that which he experiences and senses. Even when he was condemned to death, he declined any offer of hope by the priest chaplain.

On this ground, Camus rejects capital punishment as a worse offence than that of the culprit. He sees the other side of suicide as the man condemned to die. For him, it is the extreme limits of the condemned man’s last thought, that shoelace that despite everything he sees a few yards away, on the very brink of his dizzing fall 16. Here, it is good to note that some condemned prisoners commit suicide even before their execution. When environmental conditions become stressful for animals, such as those confined in zoos, self – mutilation and refusal to eat may result. Similar dynamics may explain the increased incidence of self – destructive behaviour in humans who are imprisoned. He rather recommends life imprisonment as a better retribution for the case of murder. Thus, suicide is a repudiation. The absurd man can only drain everything to the bitter end and deplete himself.

Another negative reaction to the absurd is portrayed in his famous play – Caligula which was cast in 1945 based on the life of Emperor Caius Caligula, 38 A.D 17. The tragic hero Caligula is a young emperor who carries his philosophical quarrel with the meaninglessnes of human existence to a kind of fanatical but logical extreme. The trauma of his sister’s death made him to exact revenge on the absurd universe. As a result, he sorts to destroy himself as well as those around him. He offers this explanation as he strangles his mistress, Caesonia

This is happiness: this intolerable release, this universal contempt, blood, hatred all around me, the unique isolation of the man who all his life knows the boundless joy of the unpunished killer … this ruthless logic that crushes human lives 18.

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He was assassinated at the end of the play. In reality, Caligula is less the murderous lunatic, a slave to incest, narcissist and megalomaniac of Roman history than a theatrical martyr hero of the absurd 19.

3.4 Albert Camus’ Conception of Death

Albert Camus concept of suicide is derived basically from his conception of death. He expresses in his novel: A Happy Death posthumously published eleven years after his death that death is absurd which shows the futility of human existence right in our face.

We find our own lives to be meaningless in the face of certain death; we find our actions pointless given that centuries later they would have been forgotten, and soon after that the last traces of our very existence will disappear in the voids of space.20

Albert Camus concept of death is similar to Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea of death. Sartre sees death as a meaningless absurdity which impedes our freedom to exist 21. This is quite contrary to the conception of death in Heidegger’s existentialism. For Heidegger, death is a meaningful part of human existence which confers human life with its uniqueness, singularity and individuality 22.

Camus expresses that since death is a meaningless absurdity, suicide submerges our lives into the metaphysical nihilism of absurdity or anomalies in human experience of things. In other words, it hastens our entry into futility of human existence.

3.5 The Critique of Albert Camus Ethics of Absurdity

Albert Camus exhibits a philosophical attraction and personal commitment to the orderly treatment of his philosophical system. The prominence of this existential thinker rests on his candid exegesis of human condition which he expresses under various themes. In The Myth of

Sisyphus , he sought to establish the absurdity of the human condition. He attempts to provide a rationale for not committing suicide in that absurdity. There and in The Rebel he further sought

44 to derive an ethics from that condition. In this way, he contributed enormously in resolving the existential problem of human condition. But, there are certain loopholes in his philosophy.

In the first instance, his elaboration of the absurdity and man’s response to its effect in his first novel of absurd – The Stranger is quite contrary to his idea of revolt in The Rebe l23 . Apart from the Meursault predisposition to accept things as it happens in his life, he is insensitive and passive to situation of things around him. His weak spirit and passive attitude are against the spirit of rebellion to any perceived unfairness. He is apathetic, taciturn, somewhat slow-witted, afraid of responsibilities and of taking decisions. This is a form of inauthentic existence. Here, there is a divorce between the physical and spiritual or emotional nature of man. The Stranger seems to denounce the emotional aspect of man, which plays a vital role in human life. But,

David Hume highlighted the vital role of human emotion in his ethics 24 .

In The Myth of Sisyphus , he further describes absurdity with several things in different senses. The manifestation of the absurdity can be in form of metaphysical problems or anomalies in human experience of things. In the midst of the absurdity, man longs for the unity, clarity, order, or purpose in life. Though, he recognizes man’s search for unity or absolute, he rejects the absolute, after accepting the theme that such an ultimate unity is a necessary ground for comprehending the things of the world. So it follows in his terms that the world is incomprehensible and consequently absurd. The lack of such an ultimate unifying principle or entity forces us to accept the fact that all is absurd. The absolute or God is required to give a meaning to this world but Camus expresses that such ideology is meaningless since it is not of this world. In one sense of the term, the world is meaningless because there is no absolute. In another sense, the absolute is meaningless since it is not of this world. Thus, this creates awareness that every thing is absurd.

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To grasp clearly Camus’ notion of the absurdity, one must juxtapose it against the background of philosophical ideas of the Greek Neo-Platonist Plotinus. Camus wrote his graduate thesis on the relationship between Plotinus and Augustine 25 . Plotinus envisions the world as a chain of being culminating in one or absolute. He explains the Platonic ideas or forms from the view that diversity has to be explained in terms of some ultimate unity. To give a meaning to, a rationale for, or comprehension of the things of this world is on the Plotinian pattern to do so in terms of something beyond this world (i.e. absolute unity). Albert Camus is satisfied with giving the world, somehow an intrinsic value which necessitates the rejection of a transcendent absolute. But in such rejection, one foregoes giving the world value in the sense of purpose or meaning. This is a contradiction of the absurd condition. Hence, he fails to provide for the transcendent absolute in that it provides a cue for the entrance of the Christian God. But experience shows us that man cannot grasp rationally an explanation of his own existence andthe world.

Furthermore, in The Myth of Sisyphus , Albert Camus elaborated his notion of absurdity with the juxtaposition of man and universe. It presents us with the feeling of a tense dialectical situation which permeates all his view. One may note here that Camus, like many continental thinkers, while critical of Hegelian philosophy, is impregnated with Hegelian pattern of thought in the sense that he has an affinity for the confrontation of opposites. He has to put the matter in terms of a juxtaposition of man and the universe to get his solution to the problem he raised.

Thus, he expresses that the argument of The Myth of Sisyphus is based on human experience.

When man removes himself from the absurd experience of the world, he destroys the situation and hence the absurd condition. Since the absurd condition is taken as a fact, one who destroys

46 himself denies this fact. But, I think that this idea cannot fully serve as the sole barrier holding some from suicide because it commits a twofold blunder.

In the first instance, one cannot deny that someone has a wart by stating that it is not so.

It is a contradiction for man to deny the fact of the absurd condition by removing himself from the absurdity. Secondly, Camus has leaped from the factual premise that the juxtaposition of man and the universe is absurd, to the conclusion that this state ought to be preserved. This transition has no justification. His lack of coherence may be explained by the fact that having denied a transcendent source of value, he must, if he is to have an ethic at all, anchor his value in the world of ordinary experience. The values must emerge from man’s absurd condition, which he fails to provide. Instead, he replaces the transcendent values with the absolute value of life and absolute opposition of death.

On the other hand , The Myth of Sisyphus is somehow incoherent with The Rebel . Camus envisages human preoccupation with freedom and rebellion against death as the main themes of

The Rebel. There is a contradiction in his expression of absurdity in the early pages of The Rebel , because he has introduced the value of life after claiming that life has no value earlier in The

Myth of Sisyphus . The Rebel is devoted to showing how a value, and hence an ethic, arises from the absurdity which adds nothing to the Myth of Sisyphus.

Again, in his rebellion against death, he sees two oppositions to nihilism. First is the nihilism of the rejection of all moral principles or standards. In this case, everything is permitted.

Any society that builds its moral principles strictly on this is bound to fail .This can serve to promote high level of anarchy in the society.

The other form is the nihilism of transcendent absolute which permit all moral standards in the name of some absolute end. He expresses that the crime of the second kind is subversion

47 of human life to some other worldly goals either in the sense of not of this world or of it but in some utopian future. In the name of such goals, nihilism does not hesitate to murder and by so doing align themselves with man’s external enemy-death. But, the laws of civil society and the church are meant to serve the good interest of human life in the sense that they provide essence which emanates from human condition. These extreme positions of existentialists are faulty.

Besides, Camus thought he can resolve this dilemma by presenting the absolute value of human life.

Finally, his elaboration of man’s preoccupation with rebellion in The Myth of Sisyphus is utopic. In the first instance, it militates and denounces the vital role of emotion. How can the certainty of Sisyphus’ fate frees him to recognize the absurdity of his plight without hope? It makes everything sickening and frustrating.

From the critical analysis of Albert Camus’ Ethics of Absurdity, it is evident that Albert

Camus’ concept of suicide is not quite different from conception of suicide in African and

Western tradition. Camus derives his ideas from these traditions because he operates within the context of African and Western tradition. In other words, Camus was just reiterating the conception of suicide in Western and African culture. Thereby, he sorts to improve the wrong conception of suicide in Western culture.

These criticisms are not meant to counter the tremendous impart of Albert Camus in the philosophic exposition of suicide. Albert Camus had distinguished himself as an existentialist humanism in defending the absolute value of human life. His intellectual and artistic developments show no yearning for a settled position, only a dialectical process of repeated self- inventory and flexible reorientation. Each of his major works is invariably an attempt to cope with problems unresolved by the limitations or over-simplification of the preceding one.

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END NOTES

1. Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy , (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)., p. 54.

2. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 20.

3. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 5.

4. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 11.

5. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 23.

6. Karl Jaspers, Introduction to Philosophy , (Paris: Union General d’Edition, Libraire Plon 1974), p.66

7. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 40.

8. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus; p. 89.

9. Albert Camus , The Myth of Sisyphus ; p. 90.

10. Albert Camus, The Rebel , (New York: Random House Publishers,1946).,p.7

11. Albert Camus, The Rebel ,p.16

12. Albert Camus, The Plague ,(New York: Random House Publishers,1961).,p.50

13. C.S. Wyatt, The Existential Premier: Albert Camus , p. 10.

14. Albert Camus, The Stranger, (New York: Vintage Book, Random House Publishers, 1942)., p. 127.

15. Albert Camus, The Stranger , p. 81.

16. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus ; p. 40.

17. David Simpson, Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Malto:[email protected] , 2006 retrieved on 5 th June 2008, p. 7.

18. C.S. Wyatt, The Existential Premier : Albert Camus, p. 10.

19. David Simpson, Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , p. 7

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20. Albert Camus, A Happy Death trans. by Richard Howard., (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1973)., p. 106.

21. Jean Paul Satre, Being and Nothingness , p. 615.

22. Martin Heidegger, Being and Time , p. 401.

23.Victor Brombert, Albert Camus and The Novel of Absurd , http:// www.j stor.org/stable/2928869, 2008 retrieved on 16 th May 2008 p. 120 – 121.

24. Enoch Stumpf, The History of Western Philosophy, (New York: Mc-Graw Hill Company Inc., 1984) p.232

25. Herbert Hoebberg, Albert Camus and the Ethics of Absurdity http://www.jstor.org , 2008 retrieved on 16 th May 2008 p. 87.

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CHAPTER FOUR

THE CONCEPTIONS OF SUICIDE IN ALBERT CAMUS CULTURAL MILIEU

4.1 Some Motives or Reasons for Suicide

Apart from the problem of absurdity or meaninglessness of existence elaborated by

Albert Camus, there are some reasons posited or given for suicide which stem from psychological, spiritual or religious, social, cultural and other factors. They constitute the ideological conceptions of suicide amidst cultures. Albert Camus’ ideology was formed by the various conceptions of suicide in African and western culture which were the background where he operates. Hence, he sought to improve the wrong conceptions of suicide in these world-views.

Psychologically, people who commit suicide are suffering from a major depressing mood disorder. It expresses that suicide is a psychological problem. Professor Stengel a psychiatrist conceived them on the average that one third of people who commit suicide have been suffering from a neurosis or psychosis or a severe personality disorder, depressive illness or melancholia 1.

In most cases, a person who commits suicide is emotionally unstable. Studies of psychiatrist diagnosis on suicide show a high incidence of psychiatric disorder in suicide victims at the time of their death with the total figure ranging from 98% to 87.3% 2. The mood disorder and substance abuse are the most two causative factors common among them. A series of researches were conducted by medical practitioners on the brain of suicide victims shows that serious depression can lead to specific changes of the DNA in human brain. Those changes affected on the genes’ activeness, which lead to pathological psychological disturbances 3. In this case of

psychopathological problem, the mentally derailed person has lost his or her rationality. There is

no question of morality in his action.

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Although a person diagnosed with schizophrenia may commit suicide as a result of depression or hallucination, it is an over statement to say in essence that all people who attempt or commit suicide are mentally ill on the ground that only mentally ill persons would try to commit suicide. The risk of suicide is a significant factor in all-depressive state 4. The major stressors that may precipitate major depression includes: fear, sadness, hopelessness or frustration, pessimism, guilt, inferiority complex, physical disabilities like old age, incurable diseases, childlessness, bereavement, divorce, unemployment, oppression and injustice.

Depression contravenes against Albert Camus’ ethics of absurdity. Camus sees absurdity as not something negative or ridiculous but a facticity which depicts the real state of existence. One cannot escape it by religion, illusion, or death which constitutes a finitude or abdication of the human responsibility to confront it.

Furthermore, Sigmund Freud ascribes the psychopathological aspect of suicide to psychological problems. According to him, there are recognized two fundamental instincts inherent in man. The one “Eros” is an expression of the will to live, the other “Thanatos" is the will to die 5. He expresses that the death-drive impels a man to kill himself or others. Freud developed the concept of the death instinct later in his life. It was his student Karl Menninger who elaborated on the concept of death instinct “Thanatos” which he viewed as being in constant conflict with the opposing force of the life instinct “Eros”. For him, there is an inherent tendency towards self-destruction that may occur when death instinct is not sufficiently counterbalanced by the life instincts which result in both direct and indirect self-destructive behaviour. Sigmund

Freud psychopathological instinct is contrary to Albert Camus’ philosophy because it appraises determinism which Camus refuted strongly as an impediment or obstacle to human freedom.

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Other cases of suicide had been associated with religion and culture. Hence, suicide has been influenced by cultural views on existential themes such as religion, honor and meaning of life. The Abrahamic or Christian religion considers suicide as an offence towards God due to religious belief in the sanctity of life. Christian religious rejection of suicide contravenes against

Camus’ existentialism to serve a higher essence. It is a leap into eternal world because it deprives man of human experience. Some fanatics and scrupulous adherents of some religion have committed suicide under religious influence. Suicide attack is common among the Islamic extremists. Ritual suicide is the act of suicide motivated by a religious, spiritual, or traditional ritual. An extreme interpretation of Hindu custom historically practiced, mostly in the 2nd millennium, was self-immolation by a widow as an assurance that she will be with her husband for the next life. Though this extreme case is looked down upon by other Hindus in most cases, other rituals of self-immolation or starvation were used by Hindu and Buddhist monks for religious purposes. Moreover, Samadhi is a form of Hindu spiritual suicide where the person departs to a cave or enters deep Yogic meditation, and essentially forgets the physical world around him/her 6. Albert Camus classifies this as a philosophic suicide because the individual abandons the daily preoccupation with earthly existence in order to serve a higher essence. This contravenes against the background of existentialism

In the West, .Suicide was often regarded as a serious crime in some jurisdictions; an act or incomplete act of suicide is considered to be a crime. More commonly, a surviving party member who assisted in suicide attempt will face criminal charges. In some culture, the incidence of suicide abound more in a society where it has been socially approved. Suicide has been legalized in Japan under certain circumstances in response to conditions that bring disgrace to an individual or group. In Japan for instance, rituals of suicide like seppuku was practiced. In

53 the warring states period and Edo period of Japan, Samurai who disgraced their honors chose to end their own lives by seppuku, a method in which the samurai takes a sword and slices into his abdomen, causing a fatal injury. Suicide of this sort is considered an honorable form of death but it contravenes against Albert Camus’ concept of suicide because the value of human honour is placed above human life which militates against human experience. This form of suicide is somehow related to dutiful suicide.

Dutiful suicide can be heavily ritualized as in seppuku or purely functional. It is an act, or non-fatal attempt at the act, of fatal self-violence at one’s own hands done in the belief that it will secure a greater good, rather than to escape harsh or impossible conditions. During the

Second World War, many Japanese villagers were reported to have committed mass suicide when faced with imminent capture by allied forces. Self destruction was a way of demonstrating complete personal commitment to national purpose in the case of the Kamikaze, Japanese pilots who deliberately crushed their explosive-laden planes into American warship during the war’s final stages. In Nazi Germany, many soldiers and government official (including Adolph Hitter) killed themselves rather than surrender to Allied forces. Dutiful suicide can be distinguished from a kamikaze or suicide bomb attack, in which a fighter consumes his own life in delivering a weapon to the enemy. Perhaps the most famous example of dutiful suicide is a soldier in a foxhole throwing his body on a live grenade to save the lives of his comrades 7. Suicide is heroic

in the case of sacrifice of one’s own life to save the lives of others. In an incidence of war, a top

military officer who held the secret on which the lives of the people in a whole city depend can

commit suicide when he is being faced by danger of capture by allied forces in order to save the

lives of many people.

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Suicide can serve as a form of defiance and protest. Heroic suicide is often celebrated for the greater good of others. However, in the 1960s, Buddhist monks, most notably Thich Quang

Dúc in South Vietnam, drew Western attention to their protests against president Ngô Dình Diêm by burning themselves to death. Furthermore, an American anti-war activist, Malachi Ritscher, killed himself by self-immolation as a protest against the Iraq war in 2006 8. Some heroic suicide like protest and defiance contravenes against Albert Camus’s ideology. It is motivated by illusory hope that their action will bring good to others. Such goals or essence is placed above human life which militates against the background of existentialism.

In modern era, Emile Durkheim in his resent research on suicide classifies suicide as a result of sense of duty, protest, and ritual as altruistic suicide. Other forms of suicide according to him as we have seen are egoistic and anomie suicide. Egoistic suicide is as a result of social isolation, as in the case of depression which was the effect of lack proper integration of individual in the community and adequate involvement with it. Anomie suicide emanates as a result of excessive relaxation of professional and moral codes of collective organization that in turn reduced the individual immunity against suicide tendency.

Other factors responsible for suicidal act include alcoholism and drug abuse. Lots of young people will flirt with dangerous or self – destructive behaviour as a brief phase of stretching their wings. An analysis of traffic accident fatalities reveals many inexplicable death of this sort. Some use drugs or participate in other risk-taking behaviour in full knowledge that this is likely to result in their own death. Data from the San Diego suicide study suggest that at least some of the increase in adolescent suicide may be associated with increase in drug abuse 9.

The case of drug abuse and alcoholism is indirect suicide. Death is not intended as an end or means to end but can only be permitted as an after effect of an action..

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But much more often, suicide is associated with negative events such as severe financial reverses, loss of social status, imprisonment, or interpersonal crises of various sorts. For Albert

Camus, all these disappointments in life may be classified as various manifestations of the absurdity which man must confront and change. The absurdity has meaning in so far it is not agreed to. One can see that suicide attacks, suicide to preserve one’s honour, dutiful or heroic suicide, ritual suicide, suicide a form of defiance and protest align with philosophical suicide which abandons the daily preoccupation of earthly existence to serve a higher essence. And what it implies is that essence precedes existence which is wrong for the existentialists. Human essence is determined by its existence. Man does not have a fixed nature that limits or determines choices; rather, it is his choices which bring whatever nature he has in his being. In other words, essence cannot exist on its own. It is existence that actualizes essence.

4.2 The Conception of Suicide in Traditional African world View

Suicide is an abomination or aberration, which is viewed with highest level of horror.

Human blood especially that of a kinsman or a freeborn is so sacred that to shed it by one’s own authority is to draw the wrath of the earth-goddess and that of the community upon oneself.

Oliver Onwubiko attests to this fact in his African Thought, Religion and Culture: “This idea of sanctity of life is an abomination for anyone under any circumstance to take his own life”10 .

The Africans believe in Reincarnation. Sequels to this, there are two worlds according to

African traditional Thought: The visible world of the living and ancestral world of the dead 11 .

Good life, family descendance, timely death and befitting burial and funeral rites quality one to join the world of ancestral spirit, and to re-incarnate in the family 12. But whoever commits suicide had denied himself of a befitting burial rite. As a consequence such a person cannot be an ancestor or re-incarnate. The denial of a worthy burial to a culprit is an indication that the mother

56 earth has rejected him. The culprit has polluted the earth with his/her blood and sinned against

“Ala” (the earth goddess). The whole community has to be cleansed according to certain rituals to evade calamity on the community. The body is thrown into the evil forest. In some community, a six feet pit is dug at the scene where the offence is committed. The priest of Nri known as “Aka Nri”(dwarfs) will be invited to cut the rope where the body will fall into the pit..

In some part of Igbo land, the tree and the rope with which the act is perpetrated are cut down and subsequently burnt. And the land will be purified according to rite of the propitiatory sacrifice

The seriousness of this offence is such that not everybody is expected to touch the corpse.

Even the physical contact with the body of the victim is believed to have a disastrous effect. It is believed that when a clansman touches the corpse of a suicide victim or show a sign of sympathy for him, more harm would be down to the entire community.

This can be seen in the Novel of Chinua Achebe: The Things Fall Apart . When Okonkwo committed suicide as a result of colonial influence on the culture of his people, Obierika, his fellow clansman, made this plea to the white destruct commissioner, “perhaps your men can help us bring him down and bury him? We have sent for strangers from another village to do that for us, but they may be a long time coming”.13

Furthermore, in the Novel of Elechi Amadi: The concubine , similar experience was narrated in the shameful death of Madume.

The question is who will bring him down late? That afternoon, Anyika arrived in the village armed with amulet and powerful charms, he cut down the body. He fortified two strangers who were to bear the body against the evil spirit to the evil forest of Minita 14 .

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A single act of individual member of the community can obstruct the ontological order and consequently, the being of the entire community. Ola Rotimi expressed this clearly in his novel: The gods are not to blame . Odewale murders his father to marry his mother. The whole community suffers as a result of the consequence of this single evil act 15 . Furthermore, Prof.

Egbeke Aja in his work: Metaphysics an Introduction expresses similar enthusiasm.

The world of forces is held like a spider web of which no single thread can be caused to vibrate without shaking the whole network. Whatever affects an individual force influences other forces in their being. Nothing, therefore, moves in this universe of forces without influencing other forces by its movement. 16

The whole community shares the consequence of any act of suicide. The community is expected to make some kind of purification rite “Ikpu Alu” to pacify the earth goddess and the desecrated land. The kindred of the victim offer chains of sacrifices to appease gods in order to cleanse themselves from the curse of this abominable act. Most often the relatives of the victim are treated with disdain by the society.

The conception of suicide in traditional African world-view is an offence against the earth goddess which serves African traditional religion. It is a leap into the ancestral world of the dead which deprives one of human experience. Camus expresses that the value of human life is in human experience. It is based on the doctrine of African traditional religion which is highly dogmatic and deterministic. Some may be destined by gods to die by suicide. Determinism impedes freedom which presupposes ethics. The contemporary African society adopted the religious doctrine of Judaeo-Christian ethics. The sacredness of human life in traditional African thought is relative which pertains mainly to the life of a kinsman or a freeborn. Such negative ideology is conceived against the Arab as the minority race in French Algeria. It is further extended to exclude any form of racial discrimination or tribal prejudices. This negative ideology

58 is faulty because human life is sacred whether freeborn or not. The highest instinct in man is self- preservation.

The doctrine of African religious world-view is contrary to the existentialist doctrine of

20 th century. The 19 th century philosophical movement of existentialism is a revolt against absurdity of pure thought of speculative philosophy which is neither based on abstract reasoning nor solace in religious faith. The existentialist hero Albert Camus classified this mode of existence as philosophic suicide. The absurdity of human existence, for him, does not require one to abandon reason or seek illusory hope in the solace of religion. Hence, hope is a leap into the eternal world, which abandons the daily preoccupation with earthly existence. The authentic existence is the subjective existence of individual through his free choice of action and responsibility. Existentialists express that the preservation of an individual identity transcends his own viewpoints by himself alone and not through society, its norms and customs.

4.3 The Conception of Suicide in Western Culture

There are diverse views of suicide in Western culture. We shall look at the various conceptions of suicide in Western world chronologically. In classical antiquity, generally, the pagan world, both Roman and Greek had a relaxed attitude. What we think of as Western thought today is defined as Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian culture, the renaissance, the enlightenment and colonialism 17. In Rome for instance, suicide was never a general offence in law, though the whole approach to the question was essentially pragmatic. Those who wanted to kill themselves merely applied to the senate, and if their reasons were judged sound they were then given hemlock free of charge 18. It was specifically forbidden in three cases: those accused of capital crimes, soldiers and slaves. The reason behind all the three cases was the same. It was uneconomical for these people to die. If the accused killed themselves prior to trial and

59 conviction then the state has lost the right to seize their property, a loophole that was only closed by Domitian in the first century AD, who decreed that those who died prior to trial were without legal heirs. The suicide of a soldier was treated on the same basis as dissertations. If a slave killed her or himself within six months of purchase, the new master could claim a full refund from the former owner.

The Romans fully approved of what might be termed “patriotic suicide”, death, in other words, as an alternative to dishonour. For the stoics, a philosophical sect which originated in

Greek, death was a guarantee of personal freedom; a way out of an intolerable existence.

Senecca killed himself for this motive. Moreover in ancient times, suicide sometimes followed defeat in battle, to avoid capture and possible subsequent torture, mutilation, or enslavement by the enemy. The Caesaren assassins Brutus and Cassius, for example, killed themselves after their defeat at the battle of Philippi.

The conception of suicide in ancient time lacked any moral justification. If a person chooses to commit suicide that he/she is using themselves as a means to satisfy him/her self. But a person cannot be used merely as a means since all human actions should always be considered as an end in themselves. Therefore, it would be unethical to commit suicide to satisfy oneself.

The ancient practice was outlawed with the advent of Christianity in Judeo -Christian culture. Suicide is considered a sin on the basis of God’s commandment “Thou shalt not kill” 19 .

The Judeo-Christian ethics renounces suicide based on their conception of human life. Hence, human life is conceived as a precious gift from God. God has not given us full ownership and control over our life with the right to consume and destroy it at our own discretion. All God’s gifts call for responsibility, freedom for example, is not for one to do whatever one likes. Thus, the corpse of suicide victim is treated with disdain as in the case of traditional African world-

60 view. There is no mass or church service for such a victim. This explains why there were low incidences of suicide in Judeo -Christian culture.

Suicide is quite contrary to religious belief of martyrdom. Though martyrdom seems like suicide but it is not because a martyr neither intends to take his life, nor does he take his life deliberately. It is one who goes to death rather than renounces his faith or religious belief 20 . He or she endures intense suffering for adherence to any principle or belief. The conception of suicide in Judeo-Christian culture is similar to that of traditional African society which is highly dogmatic and deterministic. This is quite contrary to existentialists ethics. Although, the Judeo-

Christian ethics seems to be the strongest deterrent to suicide, Albert Camus classified them as philosophic suicide because it is based on justification of higher power. Life should be embraced passionately instead of fleeing from the absurdity of reality into illusion, religion or death. The most paradoxical and significant existentialism attribute rational reason to the world.

The total collapse of the Western Roman Empire left a vacuum for new ideas to flourish.

Renaissance and enlightenment were the flourishing age of reason in Western civilization. The

West evolved beyond the influence of ancient Greek, and Romans due to commercial, scientific and industrial revolution. The decline of religions and the rise of individualism contributed to a relatively open -minded culture around the turn of the millennium regarding the subject of suicide changed society’s view of suicide to the extent that old views of Christian religion, which strongly condemned it, started to fade 21 . Although usually experienced as a tragedy by those who are left behind, the consensus towards the deceased tends to be vastly similar to that in case of a natural death. Feeling everybody has a right to live, as well as a right to die, the Dutch will usually respect the decision made by the deceased even if they don’t understand the reasons

61 behind it. During the Napoleonic era in France, suicide was seen as an acceptable way to release oneself from a dishonorable circumstance such as bankruptcy.

On other hand, in modern U.S culture, as in the past, people kill themselves. But, there are still intense social and judicial penalties for suicide. The historically assigned spiritual shame persists in many sectors of the culture, and leaves its residue on others. Hence, suicide is not considered honorable. It is currently perceived as a sign of failure and weakness. Those who attempt suicide and fail are reminded to the custody and confinement of a mental health facility until they are no longer determined to be a threat to themselves by two staff doctors 22 . It is commonly felt that those who attempt to take their own life cannot have arrived at decision reasonably or logically because no one in their right state of mind would want to encourage their own death.

The enlightenment and modern developments conceive suicide through the lens of science, sociology and psychology. Modern psychiatry is an autonomous discipline capable of treating melancholy, hysteria and other ailments responsible for suicide. Suicide is also viewed as social ill reflecting widespread alienation, anomie, and other attitudinal behaviour 23 . Some western scholars like Emile Durkheim conceived suicide based on the level social integration in the society. Western society operates on individualistic mode of life. In most cases, this mode of life lacks the proper integration of individuals in the society. And this accounts to high level of suicide in the Western world. From the sociological study of suicide in the western world, it is evident that the high rate of divorce amidst others accounts for suicide among adult. Emile

Durkheim classifies this mode of suicide as anomie suicide which emanates as a result low level of social regulation in marriage .In developed nations, Ferenc Moksony’s composition theory identifies that the national populations at risk for suicide is higher in men, elderly and divorced

62 people. 24 Moreover, the sophiscation of science and technology in Western world makes suicide easy.

The 20th century existentialism is an attempt to restore the dignity of human life in the

Western world. The high incidence of suicide in the west made Albert Camus to delve into the question of suicide which constitutes a threat to human society. Every group of people is entitled to a lifestyle that suit their idiosyncrasy but what is important is living an authentic life which is capable of being eroded by social isolation, crowd influence, social norms and custom. Suicide does not assert the authentic existence of individual selfhood. The freedom individual has is delimited in the existentialist world by the need to act responsibly and always in good faith.

4.4 Morality of Suicide

Suicide is a very controversial issue in the history of philosophy. Some philosophers and scholars proclaimed man’s right to dispose of one’s life on the ground that sickness, old age, incurable diseases and other misfortunes can make life sufficiently miserable that the continued existence is worse than death. This makes some sense but one has to understand that these scholars confuse happiness with pleasure. Kant’s Ethics defines happiness as contentment with the state of world in which I find myself in relation to other things outside of me 25 . Albert Camus made us to understand that the disappointments in life are part and parcel of life. Nevertheless, he expresses that life can best be lived when it has no meaning. Hence, the existentialists express that the meaning of life is in its existence. The meaning of life is in human experience. Absurdity does not render life meaningless – people’s life has meaning because they interact with each other, while remaining in control of their own destinies. Life has meaning but suicide renders it meaningless. Thus, the absurdity has meaning in so far as it is not agreed to. So everything that

63 destroys, conjures away, exorcises these requirements ruins the absurdity. One has to ignore it knowing fully well that absurdity is a confrontation of man with metaphysical nihilism of the universe which cannot exist independently on its own.

Suicide is an act of cowardice and a refusal to face life courageously. To commit suicide is an escapist solution to life’s problem and to trust the burden we cannot bear on the shoulder of our relations and dependants who must suffer because of our demise. One has to consider his friends, relatives, and entire community whom he/she will leave to suffer the psychological trauma of depression. Although suffering seems to have no worldly value, its moral and spiritual value can be much. When life becomes very difficult, moral rectitude always demand courage and patience.

It is a natural urge of well ordered self-love to preserve one’s life against all destructive forces and to seek one’s own well being. There is something abnormal for a person to willfully act as the destructive force against himself or herself. Moreover, our intelligence is meant to promote and not to destroy the natural urge to live. Thus, moral evil can never be chosen to avoid physical evil. The argument of choosing suicide as a lesser evil than illness or any other physical evil does not hold.

In addition to this, one has to understand that a sick person or patience is not in a right state of mind to determine what is good for him. A depressive ill feeling which leads to suicide is a psychological sickness which has to be treated in the psychiatrist hospital or by clinical psychologist. A sudden change in a person’s mood and behaviour is a significant warning of possible suicide 26 . Some communicate their contemplation of suicide either directly or indirectly before executing the act. The friend of a desperate man has a great task of precipitating the rancours out of his friend’s heart. It is a clamour for a new change of the person’s mode of life.

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The community should come to his aid by providing both the medical and material help, and spiritual counseling. There is the need for us to be our brother’s keeper. Communal life helps to integrate people properly in the society and share the burden of each other.

Albert Camus stresses the need for us to be our brother’s keeper in his last completed novel – The Fall (1957). It is a tale of man’s guilt for not acting. One night, as Jean Baptiste

Clamence was returning from left Bank in Paris, he saw a young slim lady leaning over the parapet on the Pont –Royal Bridge. She jumped into the Sein … and he did nothing 27 . He allowed the young lady to commit a terrible, cowardly act – suicide. The guilt for not acting haunted him until the end of the novel. Like Sartre, Albert Camus views a failure to act as an act of self-surrender.

It is unfortunate that some people in the society create conditions that make others feel so marginalized and miserable that their continual existence is worse than death. Albert Camus emphasizes the need for friendship and social co-existence in the society. Hence, he advocates for justice and fair-treatment or emancipation of slaves, “Isn’t it better that whoever cannot do without having slaves should call them freemen? ... not to derive them to despair. In that way, they will continue to smile and we shall maintain our good conscience ”28 .

Albert Camus’ ethics of absurdity on a higher possibility and collective action is meant to preserve a sense of human community and common good. The deepest root of the opposition and tension that militate against peace which can lead to despair is rooted in man’s heart.

People’s change of heart will lead to fraternal solidarity and the world will be a better place to live in. To achieve this, the primary needs of humanity should be the first command of human relation. The mutual co-operation will help to alleviate poverty and suffering in human society.

Thus, suicide is an intrinsic evil in any circumstance. It is unethical and immoral because many

65 of the reasons for committing suicide, such as depression, emotional pain or economic hardship, are transitory and treatable through therapy and lifestyle change.

4.5 The Impact of Suicide on the Society

Suicide leaves survivors intimately affected, either as a spouse, parents, siblings, or child of the deceased person. Of course, this estimate does not represent the total number of people who may be affected by an individual suicide. For example, the suicide of a child may leave not only his/her immediate family to make sense of the act, but also his/her extended family, school and entire community.

As with any death, family and friends of a suicide victim feel grief associated with loss.

However, a suicide death leaves behind a unique set of issues for the survivors. The survivors are often overwhelmed with psychological traumas that vary depending on the factors comprising the event, including discovery of the body. The trauma can leave him/her feeling guilty, angry, remorseful, helpless, and confused. It can be especially difficult for them because many of their questions as to the victim’s final decision are left unanswered even if a suicide note is left behind. Moreover, survivors often feel that they should have intervened in some way to prevent the suicide, even if the suicide comes as a surprise and there are no obvious warning signs.

Along with this sense of regret and failure, there is sometimes relief if the survivor’s relationship with the victim was difficult, strained or otherwise complicated. Given this complex and conflicting set of emotions associated with a loved one’s suicide, they usually find it difficult to discuss the death with others, even with those who have also faced the death of a loved one, but by some other means. Hence, the feelings can cause survivors to feel isolated from their network of family and friends as well as often making them reluctant to form new relationship.

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Fortunately, support groups can be formed to help survivors reach out to their own friends and family who may be feeling similarly and thus begin the healing process. In addition, counseling services and therapy can provide invaluable support to the bereaved. Some such groups can be found on line providing a forum for discussion amongst the survivors of suicide 29 .

Suicide renders life meaningless in the society. Albert Camus’ theory of suicide is to promote a sense of human community and a common dignity. Thus, he elaborates that the meaning of life is in human experience of interaction with each other in the society i.e the implicit and untrammeled dialogue through which men recognize their similarity and consecrate their destiny. Hence, the culprit disrupts the ontological order of the entire community because an individual cannot live in isolation from his social matrix. Every man is part of the society and as such, he belongs to the community. This explains the psychological trauma and tension aroused in the society over any incidence o f suicide.

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END NOTES

1. Erwin Stengel, Suicide and Attempted Suicide , p. 16.

2. Arsenault Lapierre et al, Psychiatric Diagnoses in 3275 Suicides: A Meta-Analysis BMC Psychiatry , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15527502 4th Nov. 2004 accessed on 11. 02. 09. p. 8.

3. Suicide -A Genetical Problem? http://www.infoniac.com.health-fitness/suicide-genetical- problem.html accessed 11. 02. 09 p. 2.

4. Robert Carson et al, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life , p. 218.

5. Sigmund Freud, Suicide in New Encyclopeida Britannica , (Washington: Free Press, 1962), Vol, 4 p. 1100.

6. Suicide -Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia , http://en. wikipedia. org. wiki / suicide , accessed (11. 02. 09) p. 9.

7. Robert Carson et al, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, p. 242.

8. Robert Carson et al, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, p.300

9. Death; Suicide An Inquiry into Man’s Mortal Weakness library.thinkquest.org/16665/suicide retrieved on 5 th Nov. 2008, p. 4.

10. Oliver Onwubiko, African Thought, Religion and Culture , (Enugu: Snaap Press, 1991)., p. 23.

11. Egbeke Aja, Metaphysics an Introduction ; (Enugu: Donze Press, 2001)., p. 52.

12. Innocent Onyenwenyi, African Belief in Reincarnation : A Philosophical Reapraisal , (Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd, 1996)., p. 16 – 20.

13. Chinua Achebe , Things Fall Apart , (London: Heinemann Books 1958)., p. 139.

14. Elechi Amadi, The Concubine , (London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd; 1966)., p 76.

15. Ola Rotimi, The gods are not to blame , (Ibadan: Oxford Press, 1975).,p.97

16. Egbeke Aja,Metaphysics an Introduction , p. 57.

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17. Wikipedia, Western culture in the Free Encyclopedia http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/westernworld March 2008 retrieved on 2009. 04. 15 p. 2.

18.Wikipedia, History of Suicide in the Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/historyofsuicide retrieved on 2008.06.29 p.1

19.Wikipedia, Religious View on Suicide in the Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/suicide retrieved on 2009.04.15 p. 13.

20. The lexicon Webster Dictionary (ed) by J.P. Kellerman (New York: Delain Pub. 1971) p. 200.

21. Wikipedia, Cultural Views of Suicide in the Free Encyclopedia http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/culturalviewsofsuicide retrieved on 2009.04.15 p. 4.

22. Cultural views of suicide http://www.corpus_delicti.com retrieved on 2009.04.20 p. 2.

23. Michael Choibi, suicide , [email protected] retrieved on 2009.04.19 p 10.

24. Ferenc Moksony, “Ecological Analysis of Suicide”, in Current concepts of Suicide e.d by David Lester, (Philadelphia: Charles Press, 1990), p. 71.

25. Immanuel Kant; Lectures on Ethics, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 409.

26. Robert Carson et al, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life , p. 243.

27. Albert Camus, The Fall, (New York: Random House Publishers, 1956)., p. 69.

28. Albert Camus, The Fall , p. 46.

29. Suicide-Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/suicide accessed (11. 02 .09) p.30

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CHAPTER FIVE

THE RELEVANCE OF ALBERT CAMUS CONCEPT OF SUICIDE TO OUR

CONTEMPORARY WORLD

5.1 REAPPRAISAL

Albert Camus restores the dignity of human life in the midst of absurdity or meaninglessness of existence. Human life is the absolute value of existence. Over the centuries, the dignity of human life had been delegated and pushed to the background by system of thought, historical events, technological and scientific development. Human life must not be used as a means to satisfy other worldly goals and desires, since it is an end itself. As such, many reasons for committing suicide such as depression, emotional pain or economic hardship are transitory and treatable through therapy and life style changes. Psychological ailments, melancholia, and hysteria can be treated by modern psychiatry.

Other causes of suicide align with philosophical suicide which is a leap into the external world. Some motives behind suicide are associated with religion and culture. Suicide attacks, suicide to preserve one’s honour as in the case of seppuku, ritual suicide, dutiful or heroic suicide, suicide as a form of protest and defiance contravene against the existentialists attitude to serve a higher essence. What it implies is that essence precedes existence in the sense that man exists to serve some essence higher than him. On the other hand, the essence of man is in its existence.

.Albert Camus’ philosophy of suicide is to enhance mutual co-operation and common good in society 1. The sick, aged, victims of various misfortunes or miseries must be properly taken care of to avoid the evil menace of suicide. Mutual co-operation and common good help to

70 alleviate poverty and suffering thereby shielding the individuals from stressful factors that can make the weak minds to contemplate suicide.

Common good is the basis of formation of any human society. Thomas Hobbes, in his idea of social contract, expresses that social contract is made by wills and agreement of men known as common wealth to lay down their rights to the sovereign for the common good 2. In line with this, Albert Camus expresses that the aim of rebellion is to preserve a sense of human community and a common good 3. To actualize this on the global level, there is the need for the various nations of the world to integrate and form a global human family. Today many nations are at war with each other. The tragic experience of slavery, racism, genocide, regional wars, and concern for nuclear terrorism and the possibility of chemical war in history are based on some negative ideologies against other nations. These ideologies should precipitate out of people’s mind. Many people commit suicide as a result or an act of war. It is necessary at this point to use the resources devoted to deadly weapon of mass destruction to satisfy the primary and basic needs of humanity. Peace and justice could be actualized through dialogue, reconciliation and fraternal solidarity instead of violence and terror. The advanced nations should assist the developing nations so that all men can enjoy the good fruits of the earth.

Man is a social being. Suicide is viewed as a social ill reflecting widespread alienation, anomie and other attitudinal behaviour responsible for suicide 4. Suicide can occur as a result of personal isolation consequent upon lack of any meaningful integration of individuals in the society. Every group of people are entitled to any lifestyle be it individualism or communalism that suits their idiosyncrasies. But, there is the need for authentic existence of individual selfhood which is capable of being eroded by social isolation, crowd influence, social norms or customs.

Existentialism has restored the dignity of human life in this modern period.

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The absolute value of human life can be extended to exclude any form of violence, slavery, racism, tribal prejudices, oppression and injustice in human society. Good governance is necessary in a human community so that individuals in the society can enjoy the societal and economic securities which the government should provide and so shielded them from stressful factors that can make life loose its value or meaning for them.

Suicide has to do with the mind. And whatever happens to a man happens to him in the mind. Psychological development is very crucial in human formation. People should be matured and educated properly before entering into the state of marriage. This will engender proper child formation by the parents at the elementary level, thereby building a balanced personality of individual. Hence, family is the primary social unit closest to life and nature. To a great extent, family is the root of human society. The biological and moral strength of society depends on the strength of the family. Any misappropriation in formation of human family can resort to abnormality in human formation. Such abnormality can lead to suicide in an extreme case.

However, there are indications that all is not well with the family in today’s world. The grounds for the concern are the high rate of divorce in many nations. Some divorced spouses commit suicide as a result of the psychological trauma that goes with it.

Life is not a bed of roses. Absurdity or meaninglessness of existence is another side of life. Sometimes, depression, emotional pain or economic hardship is necessary to test the level of human endurance. Hegel made us to understand that antithesis or conflict gives room for success and progress.

5.2 Evaluation

Albert Camus is an empiricist by implication. This is sequel to the fact that he believes that the explanation of things in the universe should be rationally comprehended in terms of

72 ordinary experience. In this, he rejects the absolute because it abandons the daily pre-occupation with earthly existence. This is similar to the absurdity of pure thought, which is irrelevant to human existence as expressed by existentialist philosophers. It is further extended to ethical rules, which is based on the justification of higher powers. He classifies this mode of existence as philosophic suicide. It provides the criteria of meaning in terms of something, which transcends the realm of experience for many reasons.

In the first instance, the transcendent absolute deprecates the world of ordinary experience in virtue of its insignificance when compared to its source. The motive of an advocate of a transcendent absolute is the desire to give a point or purpose and, consequently, a value to the world and life. But, the absolute is not modeled after a mind confronted with choices about which it exercises its free-will. This arouses the metaphysical problem of freedom and determinism. An attempt to reconcile a personal God’s knowledge of things with man’s freedom to create the future arouses a problem. In what sense, does man freely create what God knew he would do? Thus, the transcendent absolute is deterministic which gives room for lapses in human effort. It can impede any meaningful development in human society.

Thus, Albert Camus rejects the absolute because of the deterministic element which it contains. He sees the absolute as a threat to human freedom. Freedom links to spontaneity is opposed to what is explainable. Consider the discussion one hears time and again centering on the purported proofs that there cannot be in principle, a scientific explanations of human behaviour. In a sense, the behavioural scientist has replaced God in our current variations of the scholastic perplexity. Furthermore, the mystery of sickle cell anemia was unraveled by scientific discovery of gene variation. All these discoveries are an indication that empirical research leads to development in human knowledge. The transcendent absolute places a limit to scientific

73 development, but freedom of thought leads to tremendous development in science and technology. Hence, human freedom is one of the major preoccupations of existentialism in the

20 th century.

It is good to note that existentialism has some common grounds with Marxism. Both are empiricists in the sense that they conceive knowledge in practical terms. Knowledge in their views is not acquired for the purpose of intellectual contemplation but for the purpose of action.

Philosophers prior to these systems of thought have been trying to contemplate or interpret the world in various ways whereas what needed to be done is to change it or apply it to the personal life of man.

Again, existentialists and Marxist are humanists. Marxist’s main concern is the liberation of man from the exploitation, alienation and slavery to which the capitalist system has condemned him. But, Marxist’s conception of man is superficial because it considers only the social relations of the material factors of production. This can deprive man of his essential selfhood of the individual’s authenticity and ignores his deepest yearning. The deepest dimension in man is not his social relation but his subjectivity, his impenetrable interiority. Thus, existentialism tends to elevate the essential selfhood of individual authenticity

Furthermore, Albert Camus rejects the absolute as a result of the problem of evil. If absurdity is a confrontation of human needs with the indifference silence of the universe where lies the omnipotence nature of God? It is either that human beings are free and responsible, and

God is not omnipotent or we are not free and God the all powerful is responsible for evil. Camus makes it clear in his well known novel-The Plague that the main reason why he does not believe in God is the impossibility of reconciling the existence of an infinitely good and omnipotent God with the stark reality of evil in the world supposedly created by him. Thus, the scholastic

74 subtleties have neither added nor subtracted much from the acuteness of this paradox. Absurdity cancels all chances of transcendent absolute. On the other hand, it restores and magnifies the freedom of human action. The privation of hope and future means an increase in man’s availability.

In the end, Albert Camus offers a new morality of absolute value of human life that transcends the ultimate explanation of the transcendent absolute. The absolute value of human life should be extended to the life of all human beings in general whether free born or not. It is against any form of oppression, slavery or racism. Camus is led to assert the absolute value of life by his well – known preoccupation with death. For him, Death is the limit on our basic freedom to exist. In The Rebel , he expresses the resolute opposition of death. In maintaining life to be an absolute value, one finds the ground of a social ethics. The lucid man maintains the equality of all lives, with respect to the right to live. Man will not kill himself or another, since the maintenance of the absurd condition weighs equally against suicide and murder. Camus likens capital punishment or willful murder to the other side of suicide. It is the extreme limit of the condemned man’s last thought that shoelace that he is on the very brink of his dizzing fall.

He rather recommends life imprisonment as a better retribution for the case of murder. One wonders how Camus’ absolute value of life re-echoes Kantian ethics. Kant in his categorical imperative expresses that man should not be used as a means for all are ends in themselves. 5 In view of this; one should not interfere with the legitimate freedom of others. The ethics of rebellion furnishes the lucid man with criticism and denunciation of all forms of injustice.

5.3 Conclusion

This thesis analysed suicide in the light of Albert Camus’ existentialism. It sought to seek if there is any justification of suicide amidst the absurd meaninglessness of existence. According

75 to him, suicide tempts us with the promise of an illusory freedom from the absurdity of human existence but in the end, it is an abdication of our responsibility to confront or embrace the absurdity head-on. The absurdity of human existence does not require one to commit suicide or to abandon reason and seek for an illusory hope or freedom in the solace of religion.

It was shown that some motives or reasons behind suicide are associated with culture and religion. Suicide attacks, suicide to preserve one’s honour, suicide as a form of protest and defiance, align with philosophical suicide which abandons the daily preoccupation with earthly existence to serve a higher essence. This work is based on the famous existentialists claim that existence precedes essence. And since existence precedes essence, these other motives of suicide are wrong because man must first of all exist in order to create or serve its essence

The thesis identified life as the ultimate value of human existence. It shows that the value of human life is in its daily pre-occupation with earthly existence. One has to confront and change any unfavourable situation or circumstances in life. Suicide is against self -preservation.

Natural law forbids one to do anything that is destructive to his life or omit any necessary thing for its preservation.

Every philosophical enquiry emanates within the context of a tradition. The conception of suicide in African and Western culture were analysed because Albert Camus operates within the context of African and Western tradition. It was discovered that the conceptions of suicide in these traditions are somehow similar to Albert Camus concept of suicide. Every group of people is entitled to any lifestyle that suits their idiosyncrasies. But, there is the need for the authentic existence of individual selfhood which is capable of being eroded by social isolation, crowd influence, social norms and custom. Emile Durkheim identified in his sociological analysis of suicide that inauthentic form of existence can give rise to suicide.

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Hence, this thesis tried to look into the various suicide theories expounded by psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists which tend to explain certain suicidal behaviour inherent in man. The social causation theories expounded by sociologists are more elaborate which seems to predict suicide rather than psychiatric disorder in general. This affirms suicide in

Albert Camus’ existentialism which believes that the explanation of things in the universe should be rationally comprehended in terms of ordinary experience. Hence, he identifies that the value of human life is in human experience of things

Finally, the aim of Albert Camus’ concept of suicide is to enhance mutual help and co- operation in society. Many reasons for suicide such as depression, economic hardship, sickness, old age, or anomalies in human condition can be curbed through mutual help and co-operation

Albert Camus’ philosophy can be applicable to the whole world and Nigeria in particular which militates against suicide and murder. In Nigeria and other African countries for instance, the sacredness of human life is relative which pertains mainly to the life of a kinsman or a freeborn. Hence, racism dictates the pace in some European countries. Albert Camus made us understand that the sacredness of human life must exclude any form of violence, slavery, racism, tribal prejudices, oppression and injustice to enhance common good and co-operation. And through this means, the world will be a better place to live.

Albert Camus’ existentialism is a humanist existentialism. The prominence of this existentialist thinker rests on his candid exegesis of human condition which he expressed under various themes. His views and contributions would be likened to some humanists like mother

Theresa of Calcutta, Martin Luther King Junior, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela to mention a few. Albert Camus’ existentialism is a paradoxical and significant existentialism, which attributes rational reason to the world.

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END NOTES

1. Albert Camus, The Fall , p. 69.

2. Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan , (Oxford: University Press, 1946)., p 98.

3. Albert Camus, The Rebel , p. 69.

4. Emile Durkhum, Suicide a Study in Sociology , p. 118

5. David Simpson;, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , p. 13.

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