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In “the Myth of sisyphus” Albert Camus addresses the connected notions of happiness in the face of the absurd. Through the use of parallel structure, utilizing personification in order to clarify their connected nature, Camus asserts that happiness and the absurd are formed in conjunction with one another through lived existence. Absurdity is the concept of passionately struggling against the toil of existence despite the inevitability of death and the futility of actions. Although happiness and the absurd exist in the objective realm of reality, the personal experience of these simultaneous ideas are inherently subjective. Camus starts his main ideals about the connection between absurdity and happiness when he states that “happiness and …show more content…
Discovery.” During first read, one could claim that they are not connected, and that because happiness does not come out of absurd, that the relationship between them does not allow one part to grow, but this is not the case. The discovery allows happiness to be recognized. A discovery of happiness in oneself is really just learning something new that one had not realized. It makes sense that Camus would argue that just because two things are so closely bonded, that they would grow from each other, but in fact only change when an individual discovers something new about the absurd/happiness. To simplify, imagine the correlation between school and learning. As anyone would know that these two things are intertwined. Just because an individual will go to a school, does not mean they will succeed in learning anything, it is all based on the amount of effort that individual puts in, and when they do these things, they ultimately gain knowledge and learn. On the contrary, if one puts in no work, and does not put in effort, they clearly will not learn anything. The happiness that Camus says comes from discovering the absurd, ultimately is something that does not come out of any ones free will, but what they do and reflect and discover this happiness. In addition, the analogy of the
Therefore, happiness is “what provokes us, incites us, need not come from our own time. Indeed, our own time may be and probably is so d
In the essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus attempts to give answers to some tough questions. He wants to know if life is worth living or how we can make it worth living, as well as whether or not it is possible to live with certainty. To him, the absurd man realizes that life is absurd after his expectations are repeatedly contradicted and he realizes the world is an unreasonable place that cannot be explained. These unreasonable expectations of certainty ultimately cause many absurd men to think that life is not worth living when they are faced with what they feel is a hopeless situation. Camus offers an alternative to the problem the absurd man faces and it is not suicide or “Philosophical suicide”. Other philosophers commit philosophical suicide by suggesting that there is enough evidence, whatever it maybe, that one should survive on hope alone or make some leap. But Camus thinks that if a person is honest and truthful to themselves that they know they are nothing more than “a stranger” in this world. So how does one live a life worth living when faced with absurdity?
Several philosophers have made differing viewpoints regarding the outlook of life. Richard Taylor and Albert Camus are notably known for presenting their thoughts on whether life is meaningless or not through the use of the Greek myth of Sisyphus. The two philosopher’s underlying statement on the meaning of life is understood through the myth. The myth discusses the eternal punishment of Sisyphus who was condemned by the Gods to take a large boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, forcing him to repeat this task endlessly. Each conceive the myth in their own way and ultimately end with a conclusion that differs from each other. Taylor’s ideals and his take on the meaning of life contrast with what Camus presents in his argument. While Taylor suggests that there is a subjective meaning to life, Camus states that life is ultimately meaningless.
“Albert Camus is one of the most likeable and approachable of the mid-twentieth-century French authors” (Brosman 10).This is quite a compliment for Camus, but most would agree. In France, Albert is known for his many books, two which have made the French best-sellers list. His works are often read and studied in French secondary-school class rooms, introducing a countless number of students to his pieces each year. Camus also holds the high honor of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 (Boak 346). His wide popularity has made his name known in North America as well. Just what is Albert Camus so popular for one might ask? The answer would be his approach to his work— the underlying beliefs of Existentialism or the theory of the absurd that characterizes his pieces (Wyatt 1).1 All of Camus’ works incorporate this strong sense of the individual having freedom of choice, and thus complete control over his own outcome. He acknowledges no help or control from higher powers, just simply focuses on the individual; consequently, creating a sense of alienation. Albert Camus’ attraction to and his use of Existential beliefs began from his own life circumstances.
...s and Morris's utopias should all be outdone, and millions kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of lonely torture, what except a specifically and independent sort of emotion can it be which would make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the fruit of such a bargain?(William James)
The trial and conviction of Meursault represents the main ideals of absurdism, that truth does not exist, and life is precious. The trial is used to portray the jury’s attempt to place a proper verdict on Meursault as mankind’s attempt to find order in an irrational universe. Camus believed these attempts were absurd, because there is no real truth in the world. The entire trial is then just an example of absurdity.
Of the many themes and philosophies that Camus struggled with during his life and presented to the world through his writings, one of the more prevalent was that of the absurd. According to Camus, the world, human existence, and a God are all absurd phenomenons, devoid of any redeeming meaning or purpose. Through Mersaults’ epiphany in The Stranger, where he opens himself to the “gentle indifference of the world”, we see how Camus understands the world to be a place of nothingness, which demands and desires nothing from humans. He further explores this philosophy in The Plague, where the world of indifference is understood as a world of fear, which takes a symbolically tangible form in the plague itself. In The Plague the citizens of Oran fear that which they cannot control, understand or fight. They are faced with the most fundamental experiences of life and death, and it is only in the end that a very few find a way to cope with and understand these two ultimatums.
The trial and conviction of Meursault represents the main ideals of absurdism, that truth does not exist, and life is precious. The jury’s attempt to place a proper verdict on Meursault is compared to mankind’s futile attempt to find order in an irrational universe. Because there is no real truth in the trial, the verdict was unfair and illogical. Camus uses his beliefs of truth not existing and life being precious to point out the absurdity of the judicial system, and suggest the abolishment of the death penalty.
The human capacity for positive and negative feelings is shaped by the forces of evolution. These forces have also been involved in the way philosophers viewed their philosophical perspectives on life, death, the world and most importantly on this paper, the importance of the appearance of happiness from the reality of happiness comparing Socrates views on others. This paper will also attempt to identify the more pertinent innate qualities of the human brain with happiness, Socrates views on the appearance/reality of happiness and how we might live our own life according to Socrates defense and Euthyphro’s failures from Captain Picard’s “tapestry”.
The question of life's meaning is not simply an exercise in intellectual curiosity; it arises when life is seen as a problem, and it is one that it is imperative to solve. For example, Albert Camus, in his `The Myth of Sisyphus', sees the question as linked closely to the problem of suicide: Why commit suicide? Why not, if life has no meaning?
The Myth of Sisyphus is the most revealing commentary on Albert Camus’ reasoning. Defining the absurd as arising from the meeting of two elements: the absence of meaning in the natural world, and mankind’s inherent desire to seek out meaning. The author projects his philosophy of devoid from religious belief and middle-class morality through an unremarkable protagonist throughout the novel. Sisyphus, an absurd hero due to embracing his ludicrous task and chooses to find meaning in rolling a huge stone uphill only to have it to roll back to be pushed up the hill. The face of the Absurd feels that the world becomes strange and inhuman. No longer recognizing the beauty in nature but instead, views the world for what it is – strange and incoherent.
An absurdist tends to discover meaning despite living in a meaningless world and are unable to fully accept and understand that every life ultimately ends. Depending on a person’s ethics and morals, some indications can be made on how someone’s life may transpire with each differing and playing a role. These people often partake in unethical and immoral actions, aware of it or not, in order to achieve some type of meaning in their absurdist life. In the novel The Fall, by Albert Camus is about an Absurdist man who used to be a judge penitent in Paris before he moves to Amsterdam. While living in Paris, Clamence lives a life full of lies as he views himself superior, as he tends to help the least fortunate. In reality, his motives are flawed
Happiness, to Aristotle, is a term for which much exactitude must be made. He understands that, "Happiness both the refined and the few call it, but about the nature of this Happiness, men dispute." As such, he goes to great lengths to attain a fairly accurate accounting of what he sees as Happiness. He begins by illustrating that Happiness is an End, establishes what he finds the work of Man to be, sets conditions on being happy, and then explains where in Man the cultivation of Happiness is to be sought. The result of all these ideas is his fully developed sense of Happiness, an understanding vital to his conception of Ethics.
The idea of the Absurd seems to attach itself to meaningless, pointless and other such words that express a destination but without the means to get there and vice versa means but no destination. So from there I inferred that Camus does not believe in God, nor any high law or universal law that are associated with a divinity, which is a path in life (either the means or the destination). So what is an Absurd? The Absurd is living, a quest to find the meaning of anything within a reality with no purpose. Reality has no purpose because there is no high law, a universal law, nor a God.
The pursuit for happiness has been a quest for man throughout the ages. In his ethics, Aristotle argues that happiness is the only thing that the rational man desires for its own sake, thus, making it good and natural. Although he lists three types of life for man, enjoyment, statesman, and contemplative, it is the philosopher whom is happiest of all due to his understanding and appreciation of reason. Aristotle’s version of happiness is not perceived to include wealth, honor, or trivial