Camus, Nietzsche, and the Cartesian Subject: Political Community in Postmodernity

Abstract

This article compares how Albert Camus’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s literary style in their respective works The Plagueand Thus Spoke Zarathustra enables them to reject rational accounts of reality without succumbing to nihilism. Because both thinkers express their ideas in literary form, they avoid the mistakes of foundationalism and self-referentialism that plague modern philosophy. By avoiding these two errors, both Camus and Nietzsche are postmodern thinkers in that they anticipate criticisms of modern philosophy while, at the same time, providing an alternative vision to it.