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If I had heros, Camus would be one of my few heros. The idea that life is not just meaningless, but rather absurd is quite a relief. What I like about him is th
by paraschopra 13y ago
If I had heros, Camus would be one of my few heros. The idea that life is not just meaningless, but rather absurd is quite a relief. What I like about him is that in his writings, he does not offer any solace. He does not promise that we will magically become satisfied with life and existence, rather he writes about the confusion between living and suicide, and interestingly, he argues that both choices are equally absurd. He does argue for morality. The reader is thrown into that dizzying choice where no option is preferential, so the choice to live is rather arbitrary. The realization that life is absurd freezes you for a moment. Though, since life is rather meaningless, I feel it also unchains a person from all those pressures and norms set by society, religion and family. The thought represents true freedom.
Camus also seems to be one of the philosophers who actually looked cool.
- javajosh 13y agoI think that rather than trying to discover the meaning of life while we're busily burning fossil fuels on a single planet that we'd be better off punting on the issue until life in general, and humans in particular, have managed to sustainably spread beyond Earth (and of course demonstrate better care-taking of the world we do have). Until we achieve that end, Camus' philosophy is useless, and in some cases actively harmful. (Once we're on a few tens of planets, navel-gaze all you want.)
- gamegoblin 13y agoUseless and harmful from your point of view. Meaningless from a universal point of view.
- javajosh 13y agoThe "universal point of view" should register an account and speak up for itself.
- dredmorbius 13y agoI think that rather than trying to discover the meaning of life while we're busily burning fossil fuels I suspect your answer might be buried in that there sentence.