1. Why can The Plague be seen as a thought experiment about human nature under extreme conditions?

2. What is the greatest misfortune in a person’s life?

3. How does one become a decent person?

4. How can we find inner peace, and is compassion useful?

The Plague is a novel by French author and Nobel laureate Albert Camus, published in 1947 and regarded as one of his representative works. Its title is translated differently in Taiwan.

The story concerns an outbreak in Oran, Algeria, where a sudden plague leaves everyone at a loss. Politicians are arrogant and ignorant, conceal facts, shift blame, and even try to profit from the disaster. An obscure man who once led a listless life suddenly becomes prominent by using black-market connections to bring prohibited goods into the city. Ordinary people are frightened and helpless, selfish and greedy, living from day to day in despair.

The plague-stricken city is sealed off and no one can enter or leave freely. Those trapped inside constantly long for relatives and friends outside. A journalist visiting on assignment is forced to live without family or friends and joins a volunteer team simply to pass the time. Dr. Rieux steps forward to treat the sick and forms deep friendships with several companions, while his own wife remains far away in a sanatorium, her fate unknown.

Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) was born in Mondovi, French Algeria. A French novelist, philosopher, playwright, and critic, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.

Camus consistently rejected the existentialist label applied to him, although the citation for his Nobel Prize still described him as an existentialist.

Existentialism encompasses many different currents of thought, and sharp contradictions exist among thinkers commonly identified with it. Put simply, its major themes include the individual’s anxiety about existence and the experience of absurdity. It reflects a feeling that arises when people confront the world: isolation and helplessness, personal responsibility in an endless and meaningless absurd world, and the condition of being “abandoned.”

As Camus writes in The Myth of Sisyphus, everyone is Sisyphus; the only difference is whether one recognizes it: “Rising, streetcar, four hours in the office or factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday, according to the same rhythm—this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the ‘why’ arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement. ‘Begins’—this is important. Weariness comes at the end of the acts of a mechanical life, but at the same time it inaugurates the movement of consciousness.” Because Camus’s works express existential concerns in this manner, he is widely regarded as an existentialist.

One reason Camus opposed existentialism was his wish to distinguish himself from Sartre, since public opinion at the time largely equated existentialism with Sartrean existentialism. Camus and Sartre shared some ideas but differed over revolution, history, and the Soviet Union in particular. Sartre was influenced by Marxism after the war, whereas Camus consistently opposed Marxism, especially historicism.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813–November 11, 1855) was a Danish theologian, philosopher, and writer, generally regarded as a founder of existentialism.

Kierkegaard was a devout Christian. The central concern of his philosophy can broadly be described as “how to become a Christian.” He detested the superficial religiosity of his society and repeatedly attacked it in writing.

He believed that truth could not be obtained through objectivity but could appear only through subjectivity, so he opposed the traditional philosophical pursuit of truth as objective knowledge. He also opposed dogmatism, including Christian dogmatism. Rather than formulate his ideas as a philosophical system, he expressed them through literary works published under several pseudonyms.

The Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936–April 1, 1939) was fought in the Second Spanish Republic between the Spanish Republicans and Popular Front, and the Nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco together with right-wing groups such as the Falange. The Popular Front received aid from the Soviet Union and Mexico, while Franco’s Nationalists were supported by Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and Portugal. Because of Spain’s ideological and separatist conflicts, and the proxy struggle between fascist and communist powers, the war is regarded as a prelude to World War II.

Will Eight Minutes discuss online fiction, such as Joy of Life?