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deep_in_the_reads's review
Though I think I came away from this understanding what Camus was getting at (with some help from Sparknotes and various YouTube videos explaining context, thesis, and some quick Googles explaining the endlessly name-dropped philosophers in this work), I don't feel comfortable giving this a proper rating or review yet. I have to think about it some more, and maybe come back to it a year from now. Maybe then it'll be a bit easier to read. I will say that I really like his persistence in struggling and explaining the feeling of meaningless and futility that I often feel myself, as well as his avoidance of solving the issue with platitudes like "find your own meaning" or "just believe in something/put your faith in imaginary Gods." It's definitely an interesting work.
I do like how much Albert Camus praises creative types such as writers and artists though. He speaks my language :P
I do like how much Albert Camus praises creative types such as writers and artists though. He speaks my language :P
erinlcrane's review
I didn’t rate this because I couldn’t figure out what to rate it. Much of this I didn’t understand. My main takeaway is that there is freedom in acknowledging life is absurd and that there is joy to be had in that space. I think
greden's review
Like a man who's turning 30 year old, the state of philosophy seems to be at the stage where the hope that "one day it will all make sense" is dwindling away.
Above anything else in terms of ethics, Camus, is concerned about consistency; that our actions are coherent with our ideas. Therefore, he posits that the most urgent problem of philosophy is that of suicide. If we say that life has no meaning, ought we not to kill ourselves to be consistent?
In an answer to this conundrum, Camus introduces the philosophy of absurdism which is similar to existentialism, but he distinguishes his philosophy of that Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky because he does not "the leap" into faith. The absurd philosophy is that of not searching for any meaning, nor any God or faith. While giving credit to them, he points out that the existential philosophers that they deify what crushes them in a hope that what impoverish them, namely that of meaninglessness, will somehow set them free.
On the other hand, Camus says: Give up all hope, but not despair. Revolt, reject, protest against reality, but do not renunciate. Be dissatisfied! But do not engage in immature unrest.
Camus claims that our despair comes from a particular desire, namely that to understand an irrational world. The world is not absurd, man is not absurd, but it's their comparison. Absurdity is when the reasonable man feels divorced from the unreasonable world around him. We have a nostalgia for unity, and in search of understanding for the comfort of familiarity, all we find is profound unhappiness and confusion.
How then, to act in the world? And why is escapism not a proper response. Escapism by means of busying ourselves with the trivial, drugs or suicide.
Camus discards the notion that people turn to nihilism to justify wrongdoing. He responds to Ivan Karamazov's statement "Without a God everything is permitted," by saying that the certainty of meaning far surpasses in attractiveness that of to behave badly with impunity.
The way to live, Camus claims, is to live with the most quantity and variety of experiences and to live giving everything you have with the maximum amount of lucid consciousness of one's own experiences.
For the most part I could not understand what he was saying, it seems to me he followed the existential trend of being convoluted, and I render myself unable to criticize this properly. However, I think this can be read as a sort of existential piece of poetry. There were many beautiful passages that I couldn't understand but nonetheless affected me somehow.
As a final note, this essay has probably one of the best footnotes, competing with Freud's footnote that the origins of civilization came from men peeing to extinguish fire camps. The footnote is "Man simply invented God in order not to kill himself. That is the summary of the universal history to this moment."
Above anything else in terms of ethics, Camus, is concerned about consistency; that our actions are coherent with our ideas. Therefore, he posits that the most urgent problem of philosophy is that of suicide. If we say that life has no meaning, ought we not to kill ourselves to be consistent?
In an answer to this conundrum, Camus introduces the philosophy of absurdism which is similar to existentialism, but he distinguishes his philosophy of that Kierkegaard and Dostoyevsky because he does not "the leap" into faith. The absurd philosophy is that of not searching for any meaning, nor any God or faith. While giving credit to them, he points out that the existential philosophers that they deify what crushes them in a hope that what impoverish them, namely that of meaninglessness, will somehow set them free.
On the other hand, Camus says: Give up all hope, but not despair. Revolt, reject, protest against reality, but do not renunciate. Be dissatisfied! But do not engage in immature unrest.
Camus claims that our despair comes from a particular desire, namely that to understand an irrational world. The world is not absurd, man is not absurd, but it's their comparison. Absurdity is when the reasonable man feels divorced from the unreasonable world around him. We have a nostalgia for unity, and in search of understanding for the comfort of familiarity, all we find is profound unhappiness and confusion.
How then, to act in the world? And why is escapism not a proper response. Escapism by means of busying ourselves with the trivial, drugs or suicide.
Camus discards the notion that people turn to nihilism to justify wrongdoing. He responds to Ivan Karamazov's statement "Without a God everything is permitted," by saying that the certainty of meaning far surpasses in attractiveness that of to behave badly with impunity.
The way to live, Camus claims, is to live with the most quantity and variety of experiences and to live giving everything you have with the maximum amount of lucid consciousness of one's own experiences.
For the most part I could not understand what he was saying, it seems to me he followed the existential trend of being convoluted, and I render myself unable to criticize this properly. However, I think this can be read as a sort of existential piece of poetry. There were many beautiful passages that I couldn't understand but nonetheless affected me somehow.
As a final note, this essay has probably one of the best footnotes, competing with Freud's footnote that the origins of civilization came from men peeing to extinguish fire camps. The footnote is "Man simply invented God in order not to kill himself. That is the summary of the universal history to this moment."
unlucky_lucky_numberxiii's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.0
The talk about suicide being a Segway into the meaning of life is a heavy topic. Camus comes to neutral conclusion about life is what you make it and what you want to find meaning in.