"Rebellion and value " Rereading Nietzsche and Camus's views on nihilism based on the concept of rebellion against the meaninglessness of life

Subject Areas : Intellectual explorations

Zeynab ArabMistani ¹ (PhD in Philosophy of Art, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.)

Received: 2023-12-11 Accepted : 2023-12-30 Published : 2023-11-22

Keywords: nihilism, the meaning of life, Camus, : rebellion, Nietzsche, value,

Abstract :

In the age of modernity, meaninglessness has taken over the soul of the civilized human being. It has caused moral values, which human beings have always regarded as metaphysics values, to become worthless and lose their meaning. Therefore, the study and explanation of the undeniable necessity of the importance of meaning in life have become particularly important and have led thinkers to come to a consensus on it. Existentialist philosophers, meanwhile, paid more attention to the nature of the subject, which is concerned with human quidditas. Via descriptive-comparative study, this article has attempted to give a response to the most important human biological problem today through the role of rebellion in providing meaning to life while examining the views of two philosophers of existentialism. Nietzsche and Camus try to show that theism and moral values lead to emptiness and understanding the emptiness of the world leads to rebellion. Rejecting moral values, Nietzsche refers to rebellion as a kind of treatment in which man no longer considers suffering worthless, but considers it as a new basis of morality that leads to a new understanding of pleasure and its place in life. Camus also rejects traditional ethics and relying on the concept of rebellion, he established a new morality from which a kind of pleasure is obtained, resulting in simultaneous acceptance of the world with all its good and bad. Denying God, both Nietzsche and Camus see rebellion as the only way to salvation. In their view, rebellion combats nihilism by instilling a spirit of commitment in human beings and training active human beings, and ultimately leads to a pure pursuit of life in this world.