Camus ' Thoughts On The Meaning Of Life

Throughout this essay, we will be looking a Durkheim’s analysis of suicide and whether his ideas on suicide were right in his time, and whether they are still relevant in today’s society. Emile Durkheim described ‘suicide’ as a term “applied to any death which is the direct or indirect result of a positive or negative act accomplished by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result” (Durkheim, Suicide: a Study in Sociology, originally published 1897, 1970). Positive acts were acts that were undertaking with the intention to produce death. Negative acts were actually the distinct lack of survival acts undertaken, with the knowledge that without these acts, death would be the result. As far as Durkheim was concerned, although suicide itself is a very individual act, the reasoning behind suicide was due to predominantly social factors (Durkheim 1970, p44). Suicide was sociological, not psychological. His research was based not on the personality traits of those who had committed suicide, but instead at the suicide rates of different countries compared to the social factors that link the countries together (Durkheim 1970, p40).

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

Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide. " "Revolt" here refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd; "Freedom" refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others' moral codes; "Passion" refers to the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so he concludes that every moment must be lived fully. The naked truth of inevitability of death and stumbling upon a meaning of life (at least for one's own self) and revolting against the whole blind world, surely tranquilizes the mind.

Camus argues that even the healthy person will consider their own suicide because of the absurdity a person confronts in existence.

Finding the meaning of life has been an endeavor undertaken by countless philosophers with almost no uniformity from their answers. Ranging from promises of eternal life, to the belief that life has no meaning at all, Albert Camus, a French philosopher, offers his own unique view on the matter. In Camus’ novel The Stranger, he uses the beach scene where Meursault, the main character, kills an Arab in order to signify that life definitely has a meaning at times, albeit with absurd implications.

The core idea of Albert Camus’ philosophy of absurdity centralizes upon the idea that humans exist in a meaningless universe, and follows that humans must simply accept this fact to live life to the fullest. In addition to this absurdist notion, Albert Camus also uses The Stranger to show how humans still strive to create superficial meaning to fulfill their own personal needs. Through the experiences and interactions in Meursault’s life, Camus illustrates that in spite of how events in life follow no rational order, society attempts to futilely create meaning to explain human existence.

In the study of philosophy, it is evident that there are notions that agree and disagree with each other. When we narrow down philosophical time periods, it is even more interesting to see how ideas conflict in such a short period of time. As we observe the period between Georg Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche, we are approached with an array of beliefs as religious philosophy is combined with non-religious philosophy. The undeniable aspect is that each concept can be adequately compared. In studying Georg Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, it is evident that each takes a supreme stance on morality. Therefore, I propose the question, “Is it morally permissible to commit suicide”? By analyzing each philosophical approach to this question, each philosopher’s notion on the concept will be revealed.

Therefore, the Myth of Sisyphus of Camus states that the only serious problem of philosophy is suicide, meaning that, he believed that suicide admits the fact that life is not worth living, in other words meaningless. And so, he posed a question by asking, why, do people not commit suicide? Thereby, making his, description of absurdity to come into play or existence. Camus posed that people are not logical in the act of killing themselves, instead, they do believe in the absurdity of their own lives as an individual.

The original meaning of the word philosophy comes from the Greek roots philo- meaning "love" and -sophos, or "wisdom." When someone studies philosophy they want to understand how and why people do certain things and how to live a good life. In other words, they want to know the meaning of life. Socrates was considered the father of ancient philosophy, and the wisest man in ancient Greece. Although he was eventually condemned for his wisdom, his spoken words are still listened to and followed today. Socrates believed that the purpose of life was both personal and spiritual growth. He establishes this conviction in what is arguably his most renowned statement: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates lived his life to question and

Existential protest is the rejection of any destiny a person does not want for him or herself. It is denying the right of any negativity or dreary repetition in one’s life to take over one’s mindset. It is “that return, that pause” at the top of the hill in Sisyphus’ story, wherein there is hope, joy, and a sense of accomplishment. Though they are small and fleeting, these moments in life, these turns at the top of the hill, are what assign meaning to the human existence. They have to be enough, or else life has no point, no reward, and no hope: a truth that would be unbearable.

  In the novel, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, the main character, the Steppenwolf, considers committing suicide. He tries to justify taking his life with religious and philosophical rationales, but in the argument he finds that his life is worth living and suicide not a logical option. Sadly though, the novel provides little evidence beyond the Steppenwolf's own feelings as to why he cannot commit suicide. It is the intent of this paper, with some religious and philosophical references, to shed light on the reasoning behind the Steppenwolf's decision to live. The issue of suicide has been addressed throughout history by many critics. Many try to justify taking one's own life, but for different

From the Nobel Prize website itself, the passage describes briefly and clearly elaborates on Albert Camus, mostly in the focus of his career, writing and otherwise his involvement in theatre. The main purpose of this piece is to inform people who are interested in the Nobel Prize selection and in Camus himself about him, providing a short synopsis on his background and his movement in his career from political journalism to writing essays, stories, and furthermore novels. Growing up, Camus expressed a deep interest to philosophy, which later prevailed in all of his publications as well as his Algerian upbringing. Although his fascinations to the mind and thought were definitely present, he was unable to attend university for philosophy; however, luck struck him when he was able to begin working as a columnist and later dabbled in theatre. In many of his works, he utilized the notion of absurdum and absence, seen heavily in The Myth of Sisyphus and further elaborated upon in the main character of Meursault in The Stranger. By gathering the pieces that occurred in Camus’s life, it becomes clearer as to why he wrote the story the way it is and what it means, to him and to others.

In Camus’s major works, ‘absurdism’ was a frequent subject. The term ‘absurdism’ refers to a feud or conflict between our expectations or ideals and reality. Among his widely praised works, the “The Stranger” and “The myth of Sisyphus” can be read as an example of the absurdism. “The Stranger” is a story of an insensitive individual man, who lives for the

ABSTRACT: After 350 years of continual social transformations under the push of industrialization, capitalism, world-wide social revolutions, and the development of modern science, what reasonably remains of the traditional faith in divine transcendence and providential design except a deep-felt, almost 'ontological' yearning for transcendence? Torn between outmoded religious traditions and an ascendant secular world, the contemporary celebration of individuality only makes more poignant the need for precisely that religious consolation that public life increasingly denies. People must now confront the meaning of their lives without the assured aid of transcendent purpose and direction. The

Camus has always disagreed that the absurd man see’s life as a constant struggle with no hope. The word absurd is a man living without reason to hope for the better and his actions become meaningless. Absurdity is an understanding of man that the world has nothing as far as an answer to present him. Man is seeking some type of answer as to why he is here on Earth and what put him here in the first place. Man is caught up in a life that appears to have continuous daily events. For absurdity, there must be a contradiction of Christianity as the result to these questions of the absurd. For the reason that this contradiction, there is no belief in a spirit world or a ‘God’ but a dependability upon fate. Life on earth is all you have and one should be happy with what you should be happy with what you have at the time and should at anytime have lived your life to the fullest and in essence be ready to die at anytime. One who is ready to die lives one’s life in the present, because what happened in the past does not matter, as for the future is not certain if one will make it there (Camus, Myth 3-21). Any effort to refuse or deny the struggle and the hopelessness that defines our lives is an attempt to break away from this absurd contradiction. Camus only has one requirement from the absurd man and that is that he must live with full awareness of the absurdity from where he is at. Although Sisyphus is pushing his rock up the mountain, there is nothing for him other than toil and