The philosophy behind Self Help: Albert Camus

The job of philosophers is to deeply consider important and timeless questions, and many philosophers have changed the course of history by challenging established beliefs or inspiring people to approach things in new ways.

Schopenhauer said:

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

And so, as hundreds and then thousands of years passed, philosophers would make strong cases for approaching something in a radical new way, and a few hundred years later that idea has become accepted, passing the torch of innovation to the next generation of philosophers.

Wach generation stands on the shoulders of the giants who preceded them, taking ideas in novel new directions.  If you read very early Greek philosophy, you’re reading some of the first philosophical ideas that were committed to paper.  Some of these might seem outlandish or simplistic, but you will also encounter timeless wisdom, and you’ll more deeply understand how we got from those ideas to the ones we unconsciously follow today.  It gives you a more robust foundation when you know where your beliefs come from. 

We still read the stoic writers to learn to manage our feelings and impulses.  We read Nietzsche to set our minds free from established thinking.  We read Plato to learn the socratic method and to find where some of the foundations of ethics began.

Today, we read self-help books to understand ourselves and find better ways to live our lives.  I’ve even written some myself!  But if you’re interested in where all the core ideas and beliefs of self-help came from, I’d encourage you to get interested in philosophy just as much as psychology.

I found this short video about the philosophy of Albert Camus.  I think it’s fascinating that so many ideas you’ll find in self-help books originated with this one French philosopher…