Most readers who have attempted to read Plato or Descartes will have found it hard to understand, as unless they have a degree in philosophy or literature, analytical philosophy is beyond the grasp of most. For this reason, philosophical fiction is vital for introducing the average reader to philosophical concepts in a digestible way.
Many of the world’s most influential philosophers were also novelists and are more well known in the realm of literature than most novelists. Some prominent philosophers of such nature are Fyodor Dostoevsky and Albert Camus.
Dostoevsky About Suffering
In one of Dostoevsky’s most well-known works, Crime and Punishment, we’re introduced to the story of a law student by the name of Raskolnikov committing a brutal crime with the intent of liberating himself from poverty in order to ‘rise to extraordinariness.’ He convinces himself that his crime is justifiable, for in his eyes it’s an obstacle needed to be eliminated for him to achieve great things. However, Raskolnikov’s manner of thinking doesn’t stand to benefit him, and he is left in a state of confusion and despair once the crime has been committed.
The novel follows him as he struggles to continue living in society through the existential dread caused by the guilt of his crime, hence the ‘crime’ and its ‘punishment.’ Through the anguish and moral guilt being experienced by Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky forces us to confront the fragility of the human condition, for the man is now unable to live with himself due to the irrationality of not only his crime but also the system that provoked it at all.
Dostoevsky says through the character of Raskolnikov, “Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” Throughout the work, Dostoevsky criticises the abstract thinking of Raskolnikov and builds upon the idea that no matter how abstract one’s philosophies may be, they must still engage in the life that has been given to them. Raskolnikov thought himself to be extraordinary and that remorse would not get to him, yet we see him spiral in the ways of an ordinary man.
Yet to this tale of despondency and existential dread, there are undertones of love. While the major theme across most of Dostoevsky’s novels is suffering, his works often feature an undertone of love and redemption that forms only under previous conditions of agony and suffering.
In Crime and Punishment the story of love is between Raskolnikov and Sonya, the prostitute daughter of a drunkard whom he met at a bar. Sonya’s faith and good-heartedness, whilst being in situations arguably more severe than his own, cause Raskolnikov to feel taunted and ridiculed. Raskolnikov ends up confessing his crime to Sonya due to his weakened mental fortitude, andwhile Sonya accepts him, she says he must confess to the authorities as well. Although he doesn’t confess immediately, Raskolnikov ends up confessing to his crime as an act of love for Sonya.
While Dostoevsky could have written general works of philosophy about his contempt for abstractness in certain areas of life or his idea of the human condition, portraying it through a fictional character’s decisions and the consequences received from said decisions allowed readers to break apart his ideas and understand them far better. In a way, his novels are more influential within philosophy to the average person than the purely philosophical works of some of the greatest philosophers of mankind.
Camus and Absurdism
Camus’s works all focus heavily on absurdism, with many even calling the philosopher ‘The Father of Absurdism’ despite him rejecting the title. In his novel The Stranger, readers are met with possibly the most iconic opening line of any piece of literature: ‘Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”
From the very beginning of the novel, we’re introduced to the detached personality of the character Meursault through his reaction to the death of his mother, where he is completely indifferent to her passing. The idea of absurdism in itself is not mentioned in the novel, but it appears repeatedly, as absurdism itself is the philosophy that since all humans inevitably come to face death, all lives are equally meaningless and thus do not matter.
The day following his mother’s funeral, Meursault meets his former coworker, and when asked about his romantic feelings towards her, he shrugs it off, saying it doesn’t matter to him and that they can get married if she wishes to do so. We see from this interaction that the feelings of indifference from Meursault were not just for his mother but rather towards life as a whole.
Later in the novel, Meursault is seen at a beach and is irritated by the sunlight, and through efforts to get the sun off of him, he approaches a man and shoots him, not once, but five times. When asked why he killed the man, he replies that it was because of the sun. The theme of being bothered by physical aspects of the world is brought up previously as well, when he’s at his mother’s funeral and the heat troubles him more than his mother’s casket.
Through his writing, Camus portrays the absurdist identity of Meursault and how physical attributes of the world caused him more suffering than situations that would typically cause emotional distress. Things such as the weather are described in detail, while the ideas of love, feelings, and morality are mentioned only briefly through the lens of Meursault. While not being a notably good person, Meursault isn’t depicted as evil either; rather, he’s so indifferent to ideas most would be aghast at that he appears cruel in comparison.
Meursault’s trial showcases the concept of absurdism too, with a courtroom full of prosecutors trying to judge Meursault’s completely irrational actions through rational reasoning. When there is no rationale behind an action, it can’t quite be judged through a rational viewpoint either. Meursault had nothing to gain nor lose from the murder, nor did he have any motives; he committed the murder solely due to his disdain for the sun.
Camus wrote, “In our society, any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death,” a statement so absurd it would be incomprehensible without being contextualised in the form of a novel, no matter how simplified the notion was spun. Absurdism is one of many philosophies which cannot be understood by the masses unless they read it in novel form, for complete indifference is fundamentally against the thinking of most rational humans.