Absurdism and the Urge to Understand the World

In the most simple terms, being Absurd is being reasonable in this unreasonable world. Camus believed that humans have an uncontrollable desire for reasoning everything around us. We make reasons without complete knowledge and understanding of things to please oneself.

Coming to the topic of reasoning, what reasoning does is, we make plans for ourselves in a more timely manner—as if some intern who started working in 2018 must have thought about making more money by 2021, but he got struck by COVID-19. This was unreasonable; there was no way for the man to predict and make plans for the future. So, we stay like a bird in a cage by reasoning ourselves and do not experience true freedom.

The tension between our reasonable ideas about the world collides with what we actually experience over time.

And there is the biggest problem of all: We can boldly declare our ideas about the world as “eternal”, and at the same time, we know that our lifetime is finite. We are all going to die. Yes, you too.

So if reason and an unreasonable world are the key components, then—argues Camus—we could "cheat" and avoid the problem of the absurd by simply eliminating one of the two.

So either you deny the unreasonable world or deny reasoning, but both ways, Camus says it’s a philosophical suicide.

Camus’ Solution to the Absurd

In order to get out of this Absurd world, Camus suggests what we must do is:

  1. Permanent Revolution
    We should constantly revolt against the circumstances of our existence and thus keep the absurd alive. We should never accept defeat, not even death, even though we know it can’t be avoided in the long run. Permanent rebellion is the only way to be present in the world.

  2. Reject Eternal Freedom
    Instead of enslaving ourselves to eternal models, we should hold on to reason but be aware of its limitations and apply it flexibly to the situation at hand—or put simply: we should find freedom here and now, not in eternity.

  3. Passion
    Most importantly, we should always have a passion for life, love everything in it, and try not to live as good as possible but as much as possible.

An absurd human knows about his mortality and yet doesn’t accept it, knows about the limitation of his reasoning, yet still holds it dear, feels the pleasure and pain of his experiences, and yet tries to take in as many as possible.

Albert showed great enthusiasm for sports, especially soccer, swimming, and boxing. But due to attacks of tuberculosis, he had to put an end to his sporting career. He died on 4th Jan 1960 at the age of 46, in a car accident.

He shared an idea of losing hope, just like Friedrich Nietzsche, but he did not share the exact views like him. He quite frankly denied both claims of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.

The Myth of Sisyphus

This was from his book “The Myth of Sisyphus”.

Sisyphus was punished by Zeus for his betrayal, who sent Thanatos (Death) after him. Sisyphus managed to outwit Death by asking Thanatos to demonstrate how a pair of handcuffs worked and then locking them on Death himself—or using some other trickery to entrap Death in heavy chains.

Persephone then allowed Sisyphus to go home for three days in order to arrange for his funeral, punish his wife for neglecting her duties, and teach her respect for the lords of the Underworld.

Hades then made Sisyphus roll a huge boulder endlessly up a steep hill in Tartarus as a maddening punishment due to his hubris.

Albert argued that one must create whatever he wants in the present moment and live for passion and art, rather than denying things or planning things which, in turn, aren’t in control—because it is ABSURD.

Further Reading

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