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With a worldview formed amid the unfathomable human suffering of the early 20th century, Albert Camus’s writings reflect on the inherent absurdity of the human condition, including his best-known work, the novella The Stranger (1942). But the arc of his career, from his ‘cycle of the absurd’ and his ‘cycle of revolt’ to his ‘cycle of love’ – left unfinished after Camus himself met a rather meaningless end in a car accident – points towards a humane philosophy, centred on a defiant pursuit of freedom and value in a futile, incomprehensible universe. This animation from TED-Ed scopes Camus’s career, outlook and cultural influence, shedding light on how, where he might have found hopelessness, he instead found inspiration. For more on Camus’s life, including how his worldview clashed with those of his existentialist contemporaries, watch the Aeon original animation Sartre vs Camus.
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Metaphysics
Bertrand Russell wanted to kill off causation. Can contemporary philosophy rescue it?
8 minutes
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Ethics
How many monkeys is it worth sacrificing to save a human life?
6 minutes
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Archaeology
From Roman pots to glass eyes, the shore of the river Thames teems with surprises
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Human rights and justice
Thirty years after one teenager shot another, is it time to forgive?
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Biotechnology
What it’s like to wear a prosthetic that ‘feels’
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Family life
Fifty years ago, a train collided with Jack and Betty’s car. Here’s how they remember it
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Chemistry
A square inch in a Petri dish becomes a grand stage for chemical transformations
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Art
At 95, an artist paints swiftly to capture the fugitive light
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Teaching an AI to beat video games still takes human imagination
5 minutes