Through tales and habits, we have masked the true nature of the world. According to Camus the world might no longer make any sense.
At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman.” (ibid)Īs a result of these sudden revelations, we might find ourselves in an uncomfortable position. According to Camus once one becomes slightly conscious of the absurd, more and more things will start to feel strange: “A step lower and strangeness creeps in perceiving that the world is ‘dense’, sensing to what degree a stone is foreign and irreducible to us, with what intensity nature or a landscape can negate us. Tomorrow, he was longing for tomorrow, whereas everything in him ought to reject it.” (p.12) Time kills you, but still we cannot wait until ‘we are grown up’, or until ‘we retire’. For instance, Camus illustrates that ‘time’ is absurd: “He belongs to time and, by the horror that seizes him, he recognizes his worst enemy. But one day the ‘why’ arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement.” (ibid) Time and Nature are AbsurdĪfter awakening to the absurd one will notice that the absurd is present in many ways throughout one’s daily live. We might suddenly become aware of the absurd at any moment: “Rising, tram, four hours in the office or factory, meal, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, according to the same rhythm – this path is easily followed most of the time. According to Camus everyone will experience the absurd at one point in his or her life: “It symbolizes that odd state of soul in which the void becomes eloquent, in which the chain of daily gestures is broken, in which the heart vainly seeks the link that will connect it again, then it is as it were the first sign of absurdity.” (p.11) In this sense the absurd can, for instance, take the form of a crisis or a sudden moment of complete consciousness of the absurdity of life.
The version of The Myth of Sisyphus that I read can be found here on Amazon: Becoming Aware of the AbsurdĬamus argues that ‘the absurd’ is always present in our lives. In this analysis of Tthe Myth of Sisyphus we will discuss if and how such a philosophy can be considered optimistic. This does not sound overly optimistic, however, in my opinion the Myth of Sisyphus ends on a rather optimistic note. Its proponents fundamentaly argue that life does not have an inherent meaning and that any attempts at finding meaning are doomed to fail in the end. Albert Camus is one of the most important contributors to the absurdist philosophy.
THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS SUMMARY FULL
Despite its small size (only 134 pages), it is full of interesting ideas (some might argue horrifying ideas). The Myth of Sisyphus is a book written in 1942 by the French author and philosopher Albert Camus.
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