Damascene Philosophy

Schools of thought

Absurdism

From the 1940s

Camus' philosophy of facing a meaningless universe with open eyes, refusing both despair and false comfort.

The core idea

Albert Camus located the absurd in a confrontation: we demand meaning, unity and clarity, and the universe answers with silence. Neither side is absurd alone; the absurd is the relationship.

There are three ways to respond. Suicide gives up. Religious or philosophical leaps of faith, philosophical suicide, pretend the conflict away. Camus recommended a third: to keep the absurd in full view and live anyway, in revolt, freedom and passion. His symbol is Sisyphus, forever pushing a rock up a hill, whom 'one must imagine happy'.

Camus rejected the label existentialist, objecting that existentialists also take a leap, towards history or freedom. Søren Kierkegaard, whom he criticised, is often seen as absurdism's precursor, since he described the same confrontation but answered it with faith.

What they hold

  • Humans seek meaning; the universe offers none that reason can find.
  • The absurd should be neither denied nor escaped.
  • Revolt, freedom and passion are the right responses.
  • Life can be lived fully, even joyfully, without ultimate meaning.

The main criticisms

Critics ask why, if nothing has ultimate meaning, revolt should be better than despair; Camus seems to smuggle values in. Religious thinkers reply that the demand for meaning is itself evidence that meaning exists. Others question whether the universe's 'silence' is a real problem or a confusion about what meaning would be.

Key figures

1913 – 1960

Albert Camus

The novelist and essayist who named the absurd, and argued that we should face it with revolt rather than despair or false hope.

1813 – 1855

Søren Kierkegaard

The Danish writer often called the first existentialist, who insisted that truth must be lived by an individual, not just understood.

Where it comes up

Thought experiment

Must we imagine Sisyphus happy?

Condemned by the gods to roll a boulder uphill forever, only to watch it roll back down. Camus saw in him an image of every human life, and concluded that he could be happy.

Question

Does life have meaning without being given one?

If no one designed us for a purpose, is a human life meaningful anyway, or do we have to make meaning ourselves, or is the search itself the problem?

Question

Should we fear death?

Epicurus argued that death is nothing to us: when it comes, we are gone. Few have found the argument convincing, and fewer have refuted it.

Further reading