- We live our lives as if we're not aware of the certainty of death that we will meet into the end of it.- Science and Metaphysics only explained the world descriptively. Any interpretation in attempt in "making sense" in our life will end up in meaningless abstraction.- The true knowledge and rationality cannot truly explain the world or give meaning to it.

Why Meaningless

Albert Camus set three possible response on dealing with the absurd:Suicide (Physical Suicide)Philosophical SuicideConfronting the Absurd

Dealing with the Absurd

Albert Camus rejected Physical Suicide. For him absurd cannot exist if there is no man. And taking away your own life is not true revolt.

Suicide (Physical Suicide)

Many other philosophers attempt to deal with the absurd. Here are their concept:Heidegger's emphasize the reliance on existential authenticity.Karl Jaspers emphasizing authenticity and transcendence.Kierkegaard's advocates leap of faith.For Camus, this is a form of philosophical suicide and it is self-destructive as physical suicide. Those concept attempt to escape and seek refuge in metaphysical concept rather than confronting the absurd.

Philosophical Suicide

He also explores the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it represents absurd creation and use the premise of absurdism as his starting point.

"If the world were clear, art would not exist."

After accepting the absurd, there is a new philosophical questions and that is "How should the Absurd Man live?"Camus gives some representations on how do we live a life like an Absurd Man:Don JuanismThe ActorThe Conqueror

Chapter 2: The Absurd Man

The Legendary libertine Don Juan, represents the pursuit of pleasure and sensual experiences as a way to deny the inherent meaninglessness of life. Don Juan seeks distraction in romantic conquests and fleeting pleasures to confront the absurd.

Don Juanism

Camus examines the artist or maker. Absurd art is limited to describing the multitude of experiences in the world because meaning is unattainable. Of course, absurd creativity must also abstain from judgment and from hinting at the tiniest glimmer of optimism to the world.

Chapter 3: Absurd Creation

Camus used Sisyphus as Metaphor for the human condition in a absurd world. Sisyphus is condemned by the gods to endlessly rolls a boulder uphill, only for it to roll back down. Camus argues that embracing the absurdity and finding meaning in the struggle itself is essential to confront the absurdity of human existence.

Chapter 4: The Myth of Sisyphus

The conqueror is the individual who seeks to overcome the absurd through power, achievements, or conquests. He chooses action over contemplation, aware of the fact that nothing can last and no victory is final.

The Conqueror

The Actor represents an individual who immerses themselves in various character roles and personas. Those mask (roles) help them to become detached to the absurdity of existence.

The Actor

"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy"

The Absurdity with Hope is Kafkaesque At the essay "Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka". Camus acknowledge the idea of Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and The Trial are novellas of Kafka that represent the themes of absurdity in human existence. But he claims that Kafka fails as an absurd writer because his work retains a glimmer of hope in absurdity.

Appendix

The problem is generated by taking these two position: "Life is meaningless" and "Human desire for meaning."This will create an absurdity, a contradiction. Why still seek when there is none, why still live when existence and life itself is meaningless?

The Absurd

Albert Camus' task is to find the most important philosophical questions to human. Then he came up with it and states:"There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is Suicide"

Chapter One: An Absurd Reasoning

He states that this is the only valid option on dealing with the Absurd.It is simple, just accept absurdity, or embrace it, and continue living. You are no longer bound by hope for a better future you do not need to pursue life's purpose or to create meaning. You just live with the absurd.Camus arrives at three consequences from fully acknowledging the absurd: revolt, freedom, and passion.

Confronting the Absurd

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (Complete summary)

A Nobel Prize-winning author delivers one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, showing a way out of despair and reaffirming the value of existence. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide—the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly presents a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought and work. Of semi-proletarian parents, early attached to intellectual circles of strongly revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest in philosophy (only chance prevented him from pursuing a university career in that field), he came to France at the age of twenty-five. The man and the times met: Camus joined the resistance movement during the occupation and after the liberation was a columnist for the newspaper Combat. But his journalistic activities had been chiefly a response to the demands of the time; in 1947 Camus retired from political journali

The Conqueror

Similar ideas to The Conqueror

Confronting the Absurd

The “merchants of bad”

Happiness is a bad compass for life