The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus

1805 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Aristotle theory on ethics

In Nichomeachean Ethics, Aristotle attempts to define happiness, which brings forth many other questions that lead to the ultimate question: What is the meaning of life? While all of Aristotle’s ideas are both interesting and important, I’ll only mention those that are relevant to the character analysis. Similar to flow; optimal experience, Aristotle draws a fine line between activities or goals that are either means, ends, or both means and ends while claiming that the ultimate end is that which is the means is an end in itself. In addition, Aristotle evaluates pleasure, and concludes that pleasures in themselves are activities. There are several types of pleasures, but for the purpose of this paper, only two pleasures are worth mentioning: conditional and unconditional.
A conditional pleasure is a sensory pleasure, meaning it is something that appeases our senses. This can be activities such as sex, eating a steak, or enjoying a refreshing alcoholic beverage. While all of these pleasures can be enjoyable, they are only enjoyable for a limited time, meaning they are pleasures that are only enjoyed to a certain extent. I couldn’t smoke several cigarettes in a day, but, I often enjoy a cigarette after a meal. An unconditional pleasure is one which can be consumed or carried out repeatedly without losing the sense of enjoyment. This type of pleasure includes activities where pain my also coincide with the act. To the die-hard runner, the marathon may serve as an unconditional pleasure (Aristotle, 1999). Next, I will explain another concept proposed by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus.
In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus covers an existentialist perspective to the meaning of life and claims that the absurd; the inability ...

... middle of paper ...

...pent most of it trying to survive. Comparatively, someone like Mr. Hosokawa can continue to build up reserves of the necessities of life, whereas the slavish person can barely make ends meet. Therefore, in the case of Carmen, who chooses to study on her spare time, Aristotle would consider her act as one that deserves merit. Nevertheless, she currently has the basic necessities and is choosing to spend her leisure time acquiring knowledge for her own sake, an end in itself.

Works Cited
Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean Ethics (2nd ed.). (T. Irwin, Trans.) Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Camus, A. (1955). The Myth of Sisyphus. New York: Vintage Books.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HarperCollins.
Epictetus. (1991). Enchiridion. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
Patchett, A. (2001). Bel Canto. HarperCollins.

Show More
Related

  • Nicomachean Ethics

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through books one to three in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes between pain and happiness, clarifying the endless war that men face in the path of these two extremes. Man’s quest for pleasure is considered by the self-conscious and rational Aristotle; a viewpoint traditionally refuted in contemporary, secular environments.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Meaning of Life by Richard Taylor

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    Taylor is careful to identify exactly which features of Sisyphus predicament account for the lack of meaning. He argues that the facts that Sisyphus task is both difficult and endless are irrelevant to its meaninglessness. What explains the meaninglessness of Sisyphus’s life is that all of his work amounts to nothing. One way that Sisyphus’s life could have meaning, Taylor proposes, is if something was produced of his struggles. For example, if the stone that he rolls were used to create something that would last forever then Sisyphus would have a meaningful life. Another separate way in which meaning might be made present is if Sisyphus had a strong compulsion for rolling the stone up the hill. Taylor points out, though, that even given this last option, Sisyphus’s life has not acquired an objectives meaning of life; there is still nothing gained besides the fact he just ...

    Read More

  • How Is Richard Taylor And Camus's View On The Meaning Of Life Is Meaningless?

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Does Aristotle’s Function Argument Offer a Convincing Account of the Human Good?

    1843 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Nicomachean Ethics, written by Aristotle, represents his most important contribution within the field of Ethics; it is a collection of ten books, covering a variety of interesting topics, throughout the collection. Aristotle tries to draw a general understanding of the human good, exploring the causes of human actions, trying to identify the most common ultimate purpose of human actions. Indeed, Aristotelian’s ethics, also investigates through the psychological and the spiritual realms of human beings. Without pretending to exhaust with too many references, it would be rather useful to focus on the most criticized part of the philosopher’s attempt, which is also the very starting point of his masterpiece, identified as eudaimonia (happiness, well being) and ergon (function), in Aristotelian terms.

    Read More

  • Excessive of Self-restraint in Saint Augustine’s Confessions

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that virtue and happiness come from achieving the moral mean. The moral mean is the midpoint between deficiency and excess in any particular behavior. For example, the moral mean of recklessness and cowardice is courage. In matters of ple...

    Read More

  • Taking a Look at Nicomachean Ethics

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    I chose to write about Aristotle and his beliefs about how the virtuous human being needs friends from Book VIII from Nicomachean Ethics. In this essay I will talk about the three different kinds of friendship that (Utility, Pleasure, and Goodness) that Aristotle claims exist. I will also discuss later in my paper why Aristotle believes that Goodness is the best type of friendship over Utility or Pleasure. In addition to that I will also talk about the similarities and differences that these three friendships share between one another. And lastly I will argue why I personally agree with Aristotle and his feelings on how friendship and virtue go hand in hand and depend on each other.

    Read More

  • Aristotle Wins Ethically: A comparison between John Stuart Mill and Aristotle on happiness

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    Simply defined, happiness is the state of being happy. But, what exactly does it mean to “be happy?” Repeatedly, many philosophers and ideologists have proposed ideas about what happiness means and how one attains happiness. In this paper, I will argue that Aristotle’s conception of happiness is driven more in the eye of ethics than John Stuart Mill. First, looking at Mill’s unprincipled version of happiness, I will criticize the imperfections of his definition in relation to ethics. Next, I plan to identify Aristotle’s core values for happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness comes from virtue, whereas Mill believes happiness comes from pleasure and the absence of pain. Ethics are the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior which are driven by virtues - good traits of character. Thus, Aristotle focuses on three things, which I will outline in order to answer the question, “what does it mean to live a good life?” The first of which is the number one good in life is happiness. Secondly, there is a difference between moral virtues and intellectual virtues and lastly, leading a good life is a state of character. Personally and widely accepted, happiness is believed to be a true defining factor on leading a well intentioned, rational, and satisfactory life. However, it is important to note the ways in which one achieves their happiness, through the people and experiences to reach that state of being. In consequence, Aristotle’s focus on happiness presents a more arguable notion of “good character” and “rational.”

    Read More

  • Aristotle And Aristotle: The Differences Of Happiness And Human Happiness

    2347 Words  | 5 Pages

    Happiness is often viewed as a subjective state of mind in which one may say they are happy when they are on vacation with friends, spending time with their family, or having a cold beer on the weekend while basking in the sun. However, Aristotle and the Stoics define happiness much differently. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes happiness as “something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action” (NE 1097b20). In this paper, I will compare and contrast Aristotle and the Stoics’ view on human happiness. Aristotle argues that bodily and external goods are necessary to happiness, while Epictetus argues they are not.

    Read More

  • The Human Condition

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    Camus believes that Sisyphus’s fortune is similar to human life. Through all the activities and events people do throughout life, simply nothing is accomplished in the end. Sisyphus is a direct ...

    Read More

  • Aristotle and Happiness of the Soul

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of Aristotle’s conclusions in the first book of Nicomachean Ethics is that “human good turns out to be the soul’s activity that expresses virtue”(EN 1.7.1098a17). This conclusion can be explicated with Aristotle’s definitions and reasonings concerning good, activity of soul, and excellence through virtue; all with respect to happiness.

    Read More

  • Aristotle's Ethics

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Aristotle’s thoughts on ethics conclude that all humans must have a purpose in life in order to be happy. I believe that some of the basics of his ideas still hold true today. This essay points out some of those ideas.

    Read More

  • The Myth of Sisyphus

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Camus concludes, however, that like Oedipus, Sisyphus must feel that `all is well'. He has dictated his own fate, he has overcome the gods even in the throes of his punishment, and his entire existence is now focused on an exercise which, by its very futility, has become an end in itself and a demonstration of his own independence of awareness and consciousness. This is, he asserts, the only successful way of perceiving the human condition: to pass through the elements of unconscious absurdity, conscious tragedy and conscious absurdity, and finally arrive at the point where one understands that despite the punishments handed out by the gods, one can still retain the mastery of one's own fate, even while suffering those punishments.

    Read More

  • Virtue and Happiness

    1466 Words  | 3 Pages

    Happiness is the goal of every human beings according to Aristotle, however what does happiness imply? It is in his attempt to define happiness and to find a way to attain it that Aristotle comes across the idea of virtue. It is thus necessary to explain the relationship between these two terms. I will start by defining the good and virtue and then clarify their close link with the argument of function, I will then go into more details in explaining the different ways in which they are closely related and finally I am going to give an account of the apparent contradiction in Book X which is a praise of the life of study.

    Read More

  • Aristotle's Theory Of Happiness Essay

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle feels we have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is the perfecting of our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot establish human happiness, for pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is to express our desires in ways that are appropriate to our natures as rational animals. Aristotle states that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is to have a good moral character, what he calls complete virtue. In order to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. We must live righteous and include behaviors in our life that help us do what is right and avoid what is wrong. It is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing, we have to actually do it. Happiness can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be independent of any outside help in satisfying one’s needs and final, that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else and it must be

    Read More

  • Aristotle's Theory of the Good Life

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Happiness can be viewed as wealth, honour, pleasure, or virtue. Aristotle believes that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just an economic value, but can be used to gain some happiness; wealth is a means to further ends. The good life, according to Aristotle, is an end in itself. Similar to wealth, honour is not happiness because honour emphases on the individuals who honour in comparison to the honouree. Honour is external, but happiness is not. It has to do with how people perceive one another; the good life is intrinsic to the...

    Read More

More about The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus

Open Document