Prometheus and Zarathustra: Camus’ Revolt and Nietzsche’s Nihilism

The Camus' philosophical views were greatly influenced by F. Nietzsche. The authors of the research analyze several aspects of this influence. First of all, the article concerns Nietzsche's “death of God” concept and its reflection in Camus's key concept - the concept of absurdity. The authors come to the conclusion that Camus's philosophy of absurdity in a certain sense can be seen as a consistent development of the Nietzsche’s “death of God” concept, as a deducing all the consequences from it. The parallel in the views of the two philosophers can also be traced in two other aspects - in Nietzsche's concept of eternal return and its peculiar embodiment in the Camus’ image of Sisyphus, as well as in the Nietzsche’s idea of three transformations of the spirit and its refraction in the idea of Prometheus' revolt in Camus’ philosophy. The authors conclude that in the case of the first aspect we can speak of a significant similarity and parallelism of the ideas of the two thinkers. But the second aspect - Nietzsche's idea of three stages of spirit and Camus's idea of revolt as represented in the image of Prometheus - shows a serious discrepancy between them. In the third transformation of spirit named “child” the spirit moves from negation all previous values to the creation of the new ones. This process can be characterized as active nihilism and implies uncompromising rejection and destruction of old values, which becomes the basis for the formation of new ones. Such a position inevitably implies the unlimited freedom of the individual, the chosen one, who is able to rise to this height of spiritual development. Such a position is a response to the “death of God”. Camus's revolt is also a response to the absurdity as a parallel to Nietzsche’s “death of God” situation. But it has its origin not in the absolute freedom of the individual, but in a sense of solidarity. It is born out of the desire to help others, to improve their situation. It comes out of the desire for the common good of all people. Such revolt thus cannot be unlimited; on the contrary, it is subject to the law of measure, to the proportionality of destruction and the good to be brought about.