Connor McGlynn
February 2, 2014
Eshleman
Camus Essay Much of Camus writing in the Myth of Sisyphus is trying to get the reader to understand the idea of absurdity, and what can be done with it. In this essay I will attempt to determine whether the acceptance of absurdity does indeed make life better. Camus states that there are a few different ways one can deal with the absurdity of life, it could drive one to suicide, it could have someone take a “leap of faith” and hope there is meaning to life, or if people recognize the absurdity of life it makes people truly free when they realize they are freed of values and religion, and it would make their living experience intensify. Camus arguments strike a cord with many religious people who lean on their respective religions to give their lives meaning and a value system to lean on. I find some parts of Camus logic to hold weight and others, not so much. For the sake of this essay I will first explain what Camus notion of absurdity is, the responses to absurdity Camus has outlined in the writing, the question of revolt and why I believe it fails to hold weight. Camus, having lived through World War II in Europe, had an outlook on life that is (hopefully) very difficult for many of us to understand. His notion of absurdity comes from the realization that everyone at some point in his or her life has a moment of “why am I doing this” or “why am I here on earth” or something very similar to that. What Camus means by
For five of the passages below, write a 5-8 sentence interpretation (not a summary) of the significance in relation to Camus’s philosophical framework (moralism, the Absurd, existentialism, religion, hope, social judgment, fate).
In contrast to Kierkegaard’s work, Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus did not use any metaphysical connections to answer existential questions. In contrast to the leap of faith, Camus believed we must embrace the absurd by living in it. According to Camus, there is no existential meaning to life and therefore we must create our own meaning. We must extract meaning from arts and explore the infinite possibilities of our creative minds. “It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning” 53 In embracing the absurd, we receive a unique opportunity of seizing and embracing awareness.
With everything going on with the upcoming presidential election, the political community has been very prominent in society the past several months. While doing research on myths, I came across The Myth of Sisyphus and immediately made many connections between the two subjects. Both of these topics have a lot to do with manipulation and deception. With politics especially, people today have a lot of opinions on the dynamics of that community. They both deal with continuous repetition and constantly giving your all to make accomplish a task. What is interesting though is exactly to what extent can The Myth of Sisyphus be related to our modern day political community?
Existentialism is the main theme of Camus’s novel The Stranger, which relies heavily on absurdist ideas to assess the meaning of life. However to understand Camus’s meaning of life, one must understand the definition and traits of absurdity. Many
1). Phil’s scenario is similar to Sisyphus’ because they are both stuck in a situation where they have to repeat doing the same thing over and over. For example, Phil keeps reliving Groundhog Day while Sisyphus has to roll a rock up a hill for eternity. Another example of how Phil’s and Sisyphus’ scenarios are similar is how they got themselves into repeating the same day over. Phil was rude to people and did not enjoy the little aspects of life during his stay and news casting in Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day. Unlike Phil, Sisyphus created many crimes that the gods did not appreciate. Phil’s scenario is different from Sisyphus’ because Phil got to change the way he wanted to act and the things he wanted to do. For example, after he realized that he was going to keep reliving Groundhog’s Day, he decided to take advantage of the situation. On one of the days Phil decided to drive foolishly around town with two drunks that he met at a bar and ends up in jail. Since he is reliving the same day many times, he decides to steal money from the money truck. Sisyphus however just gets stuck with continuously rolling the rock up the hill and he has to deal with his “hour of consciousness”.
It started with the decreasing trade, invasions on the frontier, and “social unrest” (as the World History book states), but Emperors seeking government were too busy fighting to eliminate enemies rather than unjust problems on the Roman frontier.
If you hit a pedestrian while driving your car, you may think you will be held accountable for the accident. To be sure, it is often the fault of the driver, but this is not always the case. The following are four notable reasons that the pedestrian may be at fault.
Life is often interpreted by many as having meaning or purpose. For people who are like Meursault, the anti-hero protagonist of Albert Camus' The Stranger, written in 1942, the world is completely without either. Camus' story explores the world through the eyes of Meursault, who is quite literally a stranger to society in his indifference to meaning, values, and morals. In this novel, this protagonist lives on through life with this indifference, and is prosecuted and sentenced to die for it. Through Meursault and his ventures in The Stranger, Camus expresses to the reader the idea that the world is fundamentally absurd, but that people will react to absurdity by attaching meaning to it in vain, despite the fact that the world, like
The existentialism of Albert Camus is based on his view of life as the Absurd. This sense of the Absurd derives from the realization that man is destined to die, as if being punished for a crime he never committed. There is no reprieve, and this makes life absurd (Peyre). There is no God in Camus’s conception, and those who hope for an afterlife are thus to be disappointed. Camus understood that the fact that there is no God also means that there is no meaning or purpose to life outside of living life to the fullest, and that there is a destined end. The one saving grace in the world seems to be the fact that while there is no God on which man can depend, man can live as if he can depend on his fellow man, even though he and they will all die (Sprintzen). This is another absurdity, but it is based on the fact that the
What is the absurd? Camus categorized as the “belief in the absurdity of existence must then dictate his conduct” (Camus, 6). What Camus means is feeling of absurdity goes hand in hand with having a meaningless life. We get so used to doing the same routine that, we as people don’t think we just act like a robot. Camus asks “Does its absurdity require one to escape it through hope or suicide? And does the absurd dictate death” (Camus, 9). Camus says, “An objective mind can always introduce into all problems have no place in this pursuit and this passion” (Camus, 9). The problem with this is if we were always based on facts then we would not be able to base our opinions on experiences. Camus also relates the feeling of absurdity to exile, we as people what to have meaning and or purpose in our own lives. The absurdity displaces us from having a meaning life. Camus says, “Mean who die by their own hand consequently follow to its conclusion their emotional inclination” (Camus, 9). Camus considers this an absurd reasoning because this feeling of exile can turn anyone crazy leading into suicide which both the absurd and suicide are linked together.
Albert Camus is known all over the world as a French philosopher who contributed to the ideas of absurdism. He is also known for his philosophical literature. More specifically I want to focus my attention to what some people may call a book that influenced many generations. This name of the book is called “The Fall”. In this book, the reader views a different perspective of life from a character called monsieur Jean-Baptiste Clamence.
Albert Camus is a famous writer who discusses a wide variety of topics in his works. His account of the myth of Sisyphus touches on a topic that most writers are either afraid of or unwilling to talk about. This is the issue of suicide and how to deal with it as an individual and as a community. The principal point in the story by Camus is the presence of absurdity in our very existence. The presence of life and all living things that we are aware of is an absurdity according to Camus, who questions the plausibility of some people considering suicide to be the best solution to this absurdity. Having an understanding of the elements of nature that make up our world does not mean that it will ever be possible to understand—and fully appreciate—the reasons why our world is as it is. Whether one believes in God and the creation account, in the evolution process or in the Big Bang Theory among others is irrelevant because of the underlying absurdity to all of these scenarios (Camus 3). He writes that it was his intention to find the relationship between suicide and the absurd. This essay by Camus leads the reader to make an assessment of life and arrive at a suitable decision. This paper will provide a further understanding of these thoughts. This paper will show that life is simply meaningless but must be appreciated nonetheless.
The purpose of Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life,” is to portray the life of Sisyphus in Albert Camus’s, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” as a meaningless life, in which Taylor portrays as a “perfect image of meaninglessness.” In Camus’s story, Sisyphus has committed certain crimes that got him into trouble with the gods. Hence, receiving a punishment by being forced to push a rock up a hill. However, to make it even worse, once he reached the top of the hill, the rock would just roll back down to the bottom, therefore having to repeat this labor for eternity. The motivation behind this discipline was to demonstrate the pointlessness of life since there was no want to demonstrate his life will never end. The question of what’s the meaning of life is compelling to think about, but the more time spent doing it the more fascinating it gets. There are ways to avoid having a meaningless life, but Taylor’s theory sticks to either living a happy life or a meaningless life.
Albert Camus, born in colonized Algeria, a father to absurdism, and author of The Stranger confronts the philosophical themes of purpose, integrity, and passivity. The Stranger’s main character, Meursault, is a laconic man whose passive actions and brutal honesty lend to connections in his court trial. Those of which condemn him to execution. Meursault falls victim to his complete honesty, complete passivity, and disregard for the purpose of action. He is straightforward, and his actions usually follow his thoughts. Actions and decisions that most average people regard as serious, Meursault regards as arbitrary. Meursault’s exemplification of absurdism proves to not only lend to his characterization, but as a comfort in his death as well.
The moral dilemma being discussed in this paper is the death penalty. Death penalty laws were first established in Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon. It codified twenty-five different crimes. The death penalty also took place in Fourteenth Century B.C.’s Hittite Code, Seventh Century B.C.’s Draconian Code, and in Fifth Century B.C.’s Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets. Most of these deaths sentences consisted of drowning, crucifixion, being brutally beaten to death, impalement, and being burned alive. During the Tenth Century A.D., hanging became the main method of execution in Britain. Britain has influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country. On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended in the United States because it was a “cruel and unusual” punishment. Though in 1976, Florida rewrote its death penalty statue. Shortly after, thirty-four other states proceeded to enact new death penalty statues.