class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide .title[ # The absurd and the meaning of life ] .subtitle[ ## Albert Camus ] .date[ ### PHIL 2350 The Meaning of Life - FS23 ] --- # Agenda for this week 1. Video Lecture 1: Arthur Schopenauer: Suffering and the meaning of life 2. Video Lecture 2: Albert Camus: The absurd and the meaning of life 3. Quiz --- # Questions for this week 1. What points do Schopenhauer and Camus' readings have in common? 2. If life has no meaning, what do Schopenhauer and Camus propose we should do? 3. According to Schopenhauer, why is suffering a a fundamental aspect of life? 4. According to Schopenhauer, why are animals better suited to find happiness in life? 5. According to Schopenhauer, if life has no meaning, what should we do? 6. According to Camus, what does it mean to say that human existence is inherently absurd? Why is life absurd, according to Camus? 7. In the context of Camus' view of the absurd, what does it mean to say that life is futile? 8. According to Camus, if life has no meaning, what options do we have? 9. What is the Myth of Sisyphus, and what does it have to do with the absurdity of life? 10. According to Camus' interpretation of Sisyphus' attitude, what should we do in regards to the absurdity of life? --- # Pessimistic naturalism - Naturalism: There are no spiritual realities. - Pessimistic: Life has no meaning. ### Argument from Suffering and the Absurd 1. If life has meaning, then either: (i) its fundamental condition cannot be suffering, or (ii) there must be a reason for all the suffering of life. 2. Suffering is a fundamental aspect of life. (Schopenhauer) 3. There is no reason for life's suffering. (Camus) 4. Therefore, life has no meaning. --- # Albert Camus .pull-left.w30[ <img src="assets/camus.jpg" alt="" width="400"/> ] .pull-right.w60[ 1913-1960. A French intellectual, writer, and journalist. Main themes: - _Limits of reason_: Reason cannot explain the entirety of the human experience. - _Absurdity of human life_. Tension between the human desire for intelligibility and the "unreasonable silence of the world." - _Revolt and rebellion_: In response to the absurdity of life, Camus advocated for revolt: humans should resist the inherent meaninglessness of life and assert their own values and principles. ] --- # Camus' _The Myth of Sisyphus_ (1942) Main theses: 1. Human existence is inherently absurd (and therefore meaningless). 2. On the face of it, the options seem to be two: (i) suicide, or (ii) hope. But both options fundamentally elude (avoid) the problem. 3. A proper acceptance of the absurd involves _embracing it_: living the conflict as a revolt against the meaninglessness of life. --- # Why think that life is absurd? Answer: Because of the conflict between our desire to find sense and meaning in the world and the fact that the world is senseless and meaningless. .pull-left[ What we would like? - That the world is just and fair - That evil is punished and virtue rewarded. - To understand tragedy and fortune. - To attain knowledge of why we're here, where we're going, what's the meaning of all ] .pull-right[ How things actually are? - The world is unjust and unfair - Evil goes unpunished and good deeds are not rewarded - We don't understand any of this. ] --- # Futility of life > "This world in itself is not reasonable, that is all that can be said. But what is absurd is the confrontation of this irrational and the wild longing for clarity whose call echoes in the human heart. The absurd depends as much on man as on the world..." (p. 70) We want the world to make sense, but in reality the world doesn't make sense. __Futility__: Something is futile when the accomplishment of fulfillment of what is aimed at or desired is impossible. Examples: - Desire to have been born in another country - Trying to fly by flapping one's arms --- # If life is absurd, what's next? > "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards." (p. 66) - The question of the meaning of life is existential and urgent. - If life does not have meaning, then it might be the case that life is not worth living. > "Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering." (p. 67) --- # Another option: eluding - Persist in the habit of living - Hope - Live with the hope of an afterlife - Live for some great idea that will trascend life > At a certain point on his path the absurd man is tempted. History is not lacking in either religions or prophets, even without gods. He is asked to leap. (p. 71) --- # The Myth of Sisyphus .pull-left.w30[ <img src="assets/sisyphus.jpg" alt="" width="400"/> ] .pull-right.w65[ > The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. (p. 72-73) Analogy: - Futility of Sisyphus labor - Futility of searching for meaning in life ] --- class: medium-font # Sisyphus punishment .pull-left.w70[ - According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the wisest and most prudent of mortals. He is also characterized by his disdain for the gods. - Sisyphus betrayed Zeus' secrets by revealing the location of Aegina to his father Aesopus. - Sisyphus trapped Thanatos (god of death) in chains. - Sisyphus deceived Hades/Pluto (god of the underworld) by refusing to return to the underworld. As a punishment for his crimes, Hades made Sisyphus roll a huge boulder endessly up a steep hill. Hades enchanted the boulder to roll down the hill right when Sisyphus reached the top, condemning Sisyphus to an eternity of useless effort. ] .pull-right.w30[ <img src="assets/sisyphus.gif" alt="" width="300"/> ] --- # Camus' interpretation Camus imagines Sisyphus' thoughts as he walks down the hill to get back to his rock. - This is a punishment only if Sisyphus is lucid and conscious. - If he clings to the hope of succeeding, his torture would be ameliorated. - The thought of suicide is precisely what the gods want Sisyphus to experience. - The gods want Sisyphus to repudiate the life that he lived so passionately. - Sisyphus' response: "All is well." - Attitude of defiant acceptance of his condition, through which Sisyphus takes ownership of his own fate. - Scorn for the gods: act of revolt by accepting our absurd fate. --- # Fate surmounted by scorn > “I conclude that all is well,” says Œdipus, and that remark is sacred. It echoes in the wild and limited universe of man. It teaches that all is not, has not been, exhausted. It drives out of this world a god who had come into it with dissatisfaction and a preference for futile sufferings. It makes of fate a human matter, which must be settled among men. All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. Likewise, the absurd man, when he contemplates his torment, silences all the idols. (p. 74) > Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. (p. 74) --- # Radical acceptance of the absurd > I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. 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. (p. 75) - Against suicide and irrational hope, Camus proposes an attitude of _defiant acceptance_ to life's meaninglessness. - A proper acceptance of the absurd involves _embracing it_: living the conflict as a revolt against the meaningless condition of life. - This attitude makes _life worth living_, despite its absurd character.