Like a Stone
A happy death and the search for knowledge
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8856499 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Gibbons (0000-0002-0847-5639, Auckland University of Technology, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 1092-1103 |
| Publication date | 2013-03-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Educational Philosophy and Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-1857 • E-ISSN: 1469-5812 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00131857.2013.772703 |
| OpenAlex | W2078876842 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 14 |
This article explores the story of ‘the other Mersault’ whose narrative is published in the posthumous and arguably incomplete work A happy death. That this work is incomplete and that it appears (particularly through a reading of Camus’ notebooks) to be a precursor to The outsider, has arguably limited scholarly analysis of its character and plot. However, the themes that are explored in A happy death are significant in their distinction to those themes that are experienced by the other, younger, Meursault. In A happy death the world must be conquered by the will of a young man to find his happiness. He is not an outsider, and he is not content with his lot. Given an opportunity to address this latter concern, he acts upon his life in a search for happiness and in so doing engages in an ultimately frustrating, yet in some way enlightening, quest. In this article Mersault’s search for happiness is plotted in relation to his thinking about time, childhood, happiness and death. His journey is considered in relation to other stories of the search for some greater human condition. It is argued that his will to be happy reveals the absurdity of searching or not searching. This absurdity is considered in relation to the nature and purpose of school in the sense that such a relation to the search for knowledge might free school from its disciplinary tasks ... and frees the learner, the child, the teacher, from the violence of having to want to know
Absurdity · Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics · Epistemology · Happiness · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Reading (process · Relation (database · Sociology · Critical and Liberation Pedagogy · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology · Social Psychology
Happiness and Education
Narrative identity and eudaimonic well-being
Know Thyself and Become What You Are
From The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
Philosophy, Polemics, Education
Philosophy of Education for the Public Good
From Education to Lifelong Learning
Philosophy as Literature
The Learning Society from the Perspective of Governmentality
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,45 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2018 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |