Albert Camus vs Marcus Aurelius on Death
Albert Camus and Marcus Aurelius on death, side by side — 4 passages against 4, and what the disagreement is actually about.
Albert Camus and Marcus Aurelius both have a great deal to say about death — 4 passages and 4 respectively in thinkr's library — and they do not say the same thing. Setting them side by side is more useful than reading either alone, because the disagreement shows you what each position is actually giving up.
Albert Camus on death
French-Algerian novelist and philosopher of the absurd. The Myth of Sisyphus asks how to live well in a universe without inherent meaning.
“We turn our backs on nature; we are ashamed of beauty. Our wretched tragedies have a smell of the office clinging to them, and the blood that trickles from them is the color of printer's ink.”
“Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.”
“Since we're all going to die, it's obvious that when and how don't matter.”
“To become god is merely to be free on this earth, not to serve an immortal being.”
Marcus Aurelius on death
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. His Meditations — private notes in Greek, never meant for publication — are the most beloved Stoic text in the modern world.
“The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same thing.”
“Be straightforward. Look at things like a man, like a human being, like a citizen, like a mortal. (Hays translation)”
“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”
“Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you're alive and able—be good. (Hays translation)”
Where they part
France/Algeria, 1913–1960 and Rome, 121–180 CE are not the same world, and the difference is not only historical. Albert Camus treats death as something to be we turn our backs on nature;… — a matter of practice. Marcus Aurelius approaches it from another side entirely. Neither is refuting the other; they are answering slightly different questions, and noticing which question you are actually asking is most of the work.