Please join CCL and The College of Charleston Philosophy Department Thursday, February 23, 6:30pm at Randolph Hall at the College of Charleston for a lecture by University of Houston history professor Rob Zaretsky. Zaretsky will be discussing the unlikely similarities between philosophers David Hume and Albert Camus.  The lecture will be followed by a reception at 7:30.  Admission is free.  Please RSVP by Tuesday, February 21, to Amanda Cole at amandac@scccl.org or (843) 725-2062.

David Hume and Albert Camus seems as impossible a pair as, well, David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Yet not only were Hume and Rousseau (briefly) friends, but their relationship also cast remarkable light on the purpose and ends of philosophy. This also applies to Camus and Hume. As we pause between two anniversary celebrations-Hume’s tercentenary in 2011 and Camus’ centenary in 2013-there is much the two men share and offer to our own age. In their tempestuous ties to their native countries, their marginal standing among traditional philosophers, and their uncompromising, yet complex attitude towards Christianity, Hume and Camus are two of a kind. Moreover, as essayists, both men succeeded in reaching a popular readership far beyond their professional peers. Finally, though both thinkers revolutionized the way in which we have come to see the world, they were also conservatives wedded to a philosophy of limits.

For more information on Zaretsky’s lecture, please click here to view his New York Times Op-Ed.