"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."

Kierkegaard was a coward. I would much rather struggle to embrace the absurdities and objective meaninglessness of life than turn to religion for a feel-good delusion. Still, once I left my religion I found so many more wonderfully subjective meanings to my life, and was able to cope with reality on its terms rather than irrationally pretend everything was okay. Thanks to the existential philosophers such as Camus (and others) for their demonstration of the necessity to be honest with yourself regardless of the difficulty of doing so.

When I encountered the essay at 17 years of age, the last paragraph, and especially the last sentence, shot through me like an arrow; there was a life-changing recognition that there is such a thing as attainment of happiness no matter the outward circumstances, and that is the goal. With this recognition came also the understanding that, however distant or seemingly impossible, that goal is acheivable, and not only acheivable but in fact the very "meaning" of life which Camus ostensibly purported does not exist. Camus showed us that we have the power to "revolt" against despair; we can refuse to be destroyed, probably out of sheer obstinacy, and so inadvertently discover that we have opened the door to an inner world wherein fulfilment is now and there is no need for hope. This was my take-away from the piece, some sixty years ago. Since then, many things have happened, but the insight has proven a rock to cling to and a beacon to steer by that has never failed nor lost its importance for me.

@mon-bd3vj

3 ай бұрын

Beautiful

@gitanjalikumari3176

2 ай бұрын

Oh my god... You read this 60 years ago and still here .. respect sir... Hello sir

@anotheryou218

2 ай бұрын

@@gitanjalikumari3176 Kind words, sir, and much appreciated. I love your name. Gitanjali is the name of one of my most beloved books of poetry by the wonderful Rabindranath Tagore, about whom everyone should know.

@davinky1229

Ай бұрын

Heh, I’m 17 years old and have started reading it. I honestly find a bit too much to handle that despite the absurdity of the circumstances, I need to find a way to continue forward within that situation and find joy in it. It’s honestly a hard concept for me to grasp. Mostly because the idea of getting out of any struggle and depression has always been represented with doing a more ‘visible’ change…I don’t know. Very cool concept!

@anotheryou218

Ай бұрын

@@davinky1229 The only thing that mattered for me about this piece was that it presented to me the concept that outward circumstances don't have to be the determining factor as to how we feel. Perhaps I had been exposed to it in some other form but that time it actually penetrated, such that a seed was permanently planted. I never saw it as a method for dealing with anything, but rather a sort of guiding star to keep me on the beam of what's real. It seems to me your method is perfect for you for now, as I gather it works. What is better than a method that works! I am happy for you. And, my seventeen year old self is happy to greet a fellow traveler.

When I first read this story I agreed with the idea of embracing the absurd and imagining Sisyphus happy. But it is unavoidable not to rethink and to be actively conscious about your embracing of the absurd as well as the failure to do so. Acceptance would be a better word to describe what, ideally, could be done to ease the burden of the absurd. With this in mind, now I doubt that Sisyphus could be described as happy, the task of pushing the rock is an escape from other kind of suffering, the kind that we come up with when observing the absurd. If i had eternal life I would rethink my relation to the absurd, but as mortal as I am, I wouldn´t think I am fortunate of having to move the fucking rock.

@karmagurung1

Жыл бұрын

More like pick one between a bullet or something godly nonesense.

@bola0909

8 ай бұрын

I doubt the text emphasized that Sisyphus was happy moving the boulder up the cliff in an endless fashion. The metaphor, that in essence, we are all Sisyphus in whatever we do, will find some happiness in it if we separate the acts from the ends but instead, defiantly enjoy the act by choice, regardless of the burden it imposses on us.

Really glad to see this video! Albert Camus is one of my favorite writers of all time, and his philosophy of absurdism is quite an intriguing one. My personal philosophy in fact lies somewhere in the realm between Nietzsche's and Camus' ideas. I do think Camus' "The Stranger" is his best work though, and I would appreciate it if you could cover it specifically in the future.

Thank you for producing deep content like this. This is what KZread is made for.

I just realized that Absurdism is actually a form of Skepticism.

Love your videos!

Lovely video!

I got thrown into a philosophy minor last minute in order to graduate and I a really struggling. I have read this work two times now and has a lot of difficulty with it, this video helped tremendously! You just saved my midterm grade!

A video about existentialism that did not give me an existential crisis, truly outsanding!

thanks for all the hard work and time you put on all your videos. Highly appreciate it.

In reference to Sisyphus most definitions describe a Sisyphean act as one of futility and frustration. Camus' disappointment with science seems telling. I think he took modern man's endeavors as ultimately Sisyphean. Yes science has made progress but it has also let in grave dangers. It's successes do not include explanatory, ultimacy. It is this "incompleteness" in science that makes its meanings, like all meanings, contingent. The futility of Sisyphus is what Camus spots right away. Yesterday it was Atlas who held up the sky, today it is air pressure, tomorrow it will be something else, and so on. Over and over. One wonders if no one else has seen this, and so a philosophy is born. In the climb up the hill is Sisyphus ignorant of its eventual fall? Are modern physicists at Cern not aware that their work will be made moot by developments in the near future? It makes one wonder: is ignorance the absence of knowledge, or the presence of knowledge?

9:42

03:44

I believe Camus might have caught himself not in "philosophical suicide" but in some sort of "philosophical immaculate conception", which is the birth or creation of Sisyhus' smile of contentment. He says life is absurd because we can't match our desire for meaning and the "silence" of the universe. Nothing really wrong with the premise i would say, but why is it "philosophical suicide" to reach Faith as a viable answer/option? Even if it's by process of elimination or as a last resort. Faith IS a valid rational conclusion. If there is no meaning accessible for us than "Faith" on some meaning is still an "answer" and, in my view, a philosophically alive one. Then there is the issue with Sisyphus' contentment. Why can he "create" meaning in a myth? How can he "believe" in Sisyphus' inner peace or joy? Does he chose to believe it? Like Kierkegaard did with Religion? And isn't he at the last minute negating the absurdist premise by difusing Sisyphus quest and thirst for meaning? Why or how can Sisyphus stop desiring meaning? By realising and confronting life's absurdity? If that is the case and that confrontation kills the frustration of the human condition regarding meaning, than that means life is NOT absurd. It can't be, because there is no longer the desire for meaning conflicting with it's absence. It is not absurd. A meaningless universe with creatures that don't need it is not absurd, just as it is not absurd for the universe to not have water and creatures that don't drink or are ever thirsty. What do you guys think of this? (ENG is not my first language)

@NikRsmn

5 ай бұрын

Accepting faith as a response is absurd. But it is a mask of absurdity, as Camus would say it's a cowards approach to the absurd. Faith by definition is absurd, you're accepting a story to fill in the holes of your quest for meaning. In this way I would imagine you could argue that Camus is having faith that sisyphus is happy. But I would argue that sisyphus stops desiring meaning by finding happiness, which is why Camus' conclusion is that we must imagine that his thirst for meaning is satiated in rolling the boulder up the mountain. I would argue that man being imbued with a seemingly inherent quest to find meaning in mortality, with no imbued mechanism for satiating this desire is in fact absurd. As the inherent quest has no finish line. Imagine a god sending you on a quest you to the finish line, but you don't know where it is and have no way of ever knowing if you have crossed the finish line or not. is that not absurd?

Don't call Camus an existentialist! He is the absurdist! The existentialism isn't the nihilism and absurdism.

Sisyphus is turned into a robot by the greek gods. Is a robot happy? Meaning is a mental exercise associated with linguistics: definitions. It also has an alternate formulation as something to do with purpose, specifically ulterior motives: doing something for something other than what you're doing. How does Camus view meaning, linguistically or as tied to purpose? Whatever his view his prescription abandons the linguistic mind. He tells us to become lobotomized like Sisyphus the robot 🤖. Trade in your consciousness for cues like Siri. See a rock push it, if it falls go get it. I imagine Camus watching Stephen Spielberg's A.I. and being disgusted. A robot wanting to abandon his beautiful lobotomy to become a futile, thinking and feeling "real boy". For Camus there is no reckoning with death that shouts to each of us: Why are you alive!!!? For him death is not to be rebelled against, it is to be put away. Not like a criminal in jail, but like a memory..forgotten. Along with every other independent or spontaneous thought. The absurd man is vital and full of "viv and verve"? Only at what does not require thinking. Robots don't think do they? They just respond to cues like Siri. They don't know the MEANING of anything they say. Knowing the words without knowing the meaning? Absurdism is Camus' version of quantum mechanics. The idea that the universe is beyond our meaning is the realization of our limited will. How does Camus respond to this realization of limited will, this inability to will anything we want completely? This ignorance or inability to be Godlike? Instead of striving to extend our will which he thinks is futile and a trap; he rebels against the will. Instead of battling ignorance with knowledge he embraces man's ignorance by avoiding feeling and thought. He learns to exist without wasting his energy on futile pursuits: what he considers futile pursuits (knowledge, the rational will). Instead of wasting his feelings on resentment of the indifferent universe he thinks he can delight himself with action. Become a happy drone. 😊. Delight in the motion without thinking about the ends. There is a porn movie called "The Devil in Miss Jones". At the end of the movie she is sent to hell but is surprised to find things similar to Earth. Until she has sex. She finds she can go through the motions but is unable to climax. She is stuck in a pointless universe. Unlike Camus she takes no delight.

U can gwt a lotta help makin ypur life meaningless.

Camus had many things incorrect. The universe and each person is a symphony that is composed into one complex song. It takes sharps (beautiful times) and flats (horrific times) to make the melody something truly spectacular. If you knew nothing about living, and I was god and only told you what things would be like if you acted a certain way.... you would not understand. But if you were put on this earth with free will, you would soon realize the results of your actions. It's like seeing only a white color and somebody asking you to explain it, you could not until a black piece of paper was shown to you, then you could explain white. We are definitely here for the reason of understanding our own free will and the devastating effects of our choices.

@lich8103

Жыл бұрын

If you were god and did that it would be absurd for me to understand that ,it would mean I know the objective, thus no longer a creature of this world