Camus debates various responses to the “absurd” before deciding that all are inadequate and that, ultimately, the only response is to accept meaninglessness as part of life and to simply live “as much” as possible.Ĭamus believes that the absurd is often suppressed by habit. He characterizes this as “the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation and the uselessness of suffering.” For Camus, figuring out whether it’s possible to live with full knowledge of life’s absence of meaning is the most important philosophical question of all (or if suicide is the only viable option). Camus specifically defines absurdism as the confrontation between two key elements: on the one hand, there is humankind’s “wild longing for clarity,” meaning, and “order.” On the other hand, people find nothing in the world that gives evidence of answering this search for meaning-life’s biggest questions are answered only by the “unreasonable silence of the world.” From the beginning of the book, Camus suggests that the fact of death robs life of meaning. Absurdism is often mischaracterized as solely the idea that life is inherently meaningless-and while that is undoubtedly an important aspect of absurdism, it isn’t the whole story.

Albert camus the myth of sisyphus