1. Consciousness of Absurdity

a. Lack of Life’s Inherent Purpose

i. The central concern of The Myth of Sisyphus is what Camus calls

"the absurd." On the whole, we go through life with a sense of

meaning and purpose, with a sense that we do things for good

and profound reasons. Occasionally, however, we might come

to see our daily actions and interactions as dictated primarily

by the force of habit. We cease to see ourselves as free agents

and come to see ourselves almost as machine-like drones.

There arises a fundamental conflict between what we want

from the universe (meaning, order, and reason) and what we

actually find in the universe (formless chaos). From this

perspective, all our actions, desires, and reasons seem

pointless. The feeling of absurdity is closely linked to the

feeling that life is meaningless. On the level of science, a theory

can describe the world, but it cannot ultimately explain it. The

world is made up of such diversity, and there are so many

different perspectives we can take on understanding it, that it

seems futile that we should ever find one absolute Truth, one

correct way of looking at the world and understanding it at

once in its entirety. The unifying reason that we hope to apply

to the world is not in the world itself: the world is

fundamentally irrational. Neither the world nor the human

mind is in itself absurd. Rather, absurdity finds itself in the

confrontation between the two.

ii. Mankind will attempt to uncover an inherent meaning of life in

various ways, such as a leap of faith (placing our hopes in a god

beyond this world), or we will conclude that life is

meaningless. If man fails to find an inherent meaning for life,

does that mean life is not worth living? If such were the case,

we would have no option but to commit suicide.

iii. The universe is chaotic and has no inherent purpose for its

existence. This is an inarguable fact: Undeniable Absurdity.

b. Consequences of Consciousness

i. Once you know, you know. There’s no unknowing. The absurd

is a contradiction that cannot be reconciled, and any

attempt to reconcile this contradiction is simply an

attempt to escape from it. If life has no meaning, does that

mean life is not worth living?

ii. If that were the case, we would have no option but to make a

leap of faith or to commit suicide, says Camus. Camus is

interested in pursuing a third possibility: that we can accept

and live in a world devoid of meaning or purpose.

iii. Options: leap of faith, suicide, or acceptance

1. Consciousness of the absurd results in the loss of faith

and hope, things that aren’t based on immediate

individual human experience

2. Fear of possibility, of responsibility

3. The absurd is a contradiction that cannot be reconciled,

and any attempt to reconcile this contradiction is simply

an attempt to escape from it. Facing the absurd is

struggling against it. Living with the absurd, Camus

suggests, is a matter of facing this fundamental

contradiction and maintaining constant awareness of it.

Facing the absurd does not entail suicide, but, on the

contrary, allows us to live life to its fullest.

4.

2. Creating Meaning in an Absurd Universe

a. The Search for Genuine Happiness (How can Sisyphus possibly be

happy in his situation?)

i. Embracing and accepting the absurdity of life

1. The futility of any attempt to determine the ultimate

meaning of existence gives one the freedom to

determine one's own meaning to one's own life.

2. Accepting the absurd is a matter of living life to its

fullest, remaining aware that we are reasonable human

beings condemned to live a short time in an

unreasonable world and then to die.

a. How could someone not be depressed being

constantly aware of the absurdity of life, of his or

her struggles?

ii. Our fate is entirely our own

1. Purpose (creating it vs. finding it)

2. If we choose to accept that life is absurd, we are

responsible for maintaining the will to live in a

meaningless world

The futility of any attempt to determine the ultimate

meaning of existence gives one the freedom to

determine one's own meaning to one's own life.

Meaning cannot exist without humans to create it or

understand it.

a. Although my life has no inherent purpose, it will

end up serving a purpose; that is to say, because

I live in society, my choices will have an affect on

others. I have to find things that have purpose

for me. My life will be meaningful, but it does not

inherently have meaning.

i. I used to think life had an inherent

meaning

1. “God’s Will” = serving and

sympathizing with humanity, i.e.

Christian humanist

ii. Abandonment of religion

b. The absurd man is determined to reject

everything he cannot know with certainty. The

only freedom the absurd man can know is the

freedom he experiences: the freedom to think

and to act as he chooses. By abandoning the idea

that he has some role to fulfill, the absurd man

attains the freedom of taking each moment of life

as it strikes him

i. It’s like the quote: “No one can control your

actions but yourself.”

iii. If happiness is real, we must be able to find happiness without

relying on hope, faith, or anything else that goes beyond

immediate experience. 

1. If happiness is real, we must be able to find happiness

without relying on hope, faith, or anything else that goes

beyond immediate experience. The Myth of Sisyphus is

essentially an elaborate attempt to show that this is

possible, and it concludes with its starting premise: if

genuine happiness is possible, then Sisyphus must be

happy.

2. One can still be happy with things that aren’t related to

immediate individual human experience; however, once

one becomes aware of the absurdity of life, this is no

longer possible.

3. Perhaps the quality that makes something real is its

source. For example, it is true that one can feel happy

because of faith or the knowledge of absurdity. Happiness

as a result of knowledge of absurdity, however, is real

because it is not dependent on something that doesn’t

exist. Happiness as a result of ‘faith and hope’ is not real

because they are based on the fact that life has some sort

of inherent meaning, which is false according to

Undeniable Absurdity.

4.

b. Revolt, Freedom, and Passion

i. Revolt (we must not accept any answer or reconciliation in our

struggle, i.e. suicide or succumbing to faith; accepting the

absurd by incessantly engaging it)

ii. Freedom (we are absolutely free to think and behave as we

choose, to make our own decisions, and to define ourselves by

our actions)

1. The only freedom the absurd man can know is the

freedom he experiences: the freedom to think and to act

as he chooses. By abandoning the idea that he has some

role to fulfill, the absurd man attains the freedom of

taking each moment of life as it strikes him, free of

preconceptions or prejudices.

iii. Passion in the Present (we must pursue a life of rich and

diverse experiences by remaining focused on the present

because it is certain, and having as many experiences as

possible).

1. In abandoning the idea of there being any meaning to

life, the absurd man also abandons any notion of values.

If there is no meaning or purpose to what we do, there

is no reason for doing one thing rather than another.

That being the case, we can apply no standard of quality

to our experiences. Instead, we can apply only a

standard of quantity: the more one experiences the

better. By quantity of experience, Camus doesn't mean a

long life so much as he means the passion of a full life. A

person who is aware of each passing moment will

experience more than someone who is otherwise

preoccupied will. The absurd man is determined to live

in the present.

2. Because the absurd man is not concerned with the

future and is not preoccupied with the past, the present

moment seems that much more intense and alive to

him. A person who is aware of each passing moment

will experience more than someone who is otherwise

preoccupied will. The absurd man is determined to live

in the present.

3.

c. Authenticity and Responsibility