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Myth of Sisyphus

An Absurd Reasoning

Absurdity and Suicide

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide"

  • why? because the consequence of the conclusion > any other question
  • Real question is: Does the Absurd dictate death？

Absurd walls

world in itself is not absurd, what's absurd is the confrontation between man's urge towards unity and things that can't be reconcilled:

  • pure reason is full of paradoxes (e.g. Aristotle's about truths and falses)
  • Science behind what we see/touch: all just hypothesis, impossible to know for sure
  • in this age, lots of critism of rationalism. further proves the intensity of the hope of reconciliation and its futility

Philosophical suicide

  • absurd is result of comparison. magnitutde of absurdity proportional to distance of the two
  • other existential philosophers: escape
    • Jaspers: the absurd itself is transcendence - it's a leap
    • Chstov: god is the solution
    • Kierkergaard:
      • "The important thing is not to be cured, but to live with one's ailments. Kierkergaard watns to be cured".
      • for K, dispair is sin, sin is waht alientates from god

Absurd freedom

  • Facts I cannot deny: the desire for unity, the longing to solve, the need for clarity and cohesion
  • The certainties: my appepite for the abolut and for unity and the impossiblity of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle
  • suicide:
    • similar to philosohpical suicide, is escaping from the problem
    • living is keeping the absurd alive. in that consciousneess and day-to-day revolt man give proof of his only truth - defiance
  • freedom
    • before encountering absurd, everyday man lives with goals and concern for future
    • but no true freedom exist if if it's not eternal
    • if man imagine a purpose to his life, he becomes slave to the demands of the purpose - you are free to choose, but if you choose, you are no longer free

Myth of sisyphus

"Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy"