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Did Albert Camus Solve The Meaning of Life?
“Don’t take life too seriously — you will never get out of it alive.” ~ Elbert Hubbard
I want life to make sense. But the universe is indifferent to my existence. I want purpose. I want reasons. But the universe doesn’t care. It just exists. With or without my questions. French philosopher and writer Albert Camus thought I will never live if I continue looking for the meaning of life. He observed I can only truly live by accepting the harsh truth: all life is absurd.
He explains, “The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter, these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable.”
Camus didn’t stop there, though.
He thought making peace with meaninglessness was the first step to solving my own meaning. “The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth,” he said. Camus says that recognizing the absurd doesn’t mean we should give up. It’s the opposite. It’s only by acknowledging the meaninglessness of existence that we can indeed be free to just be. “Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world,” he wrote.
Camus says we have three choices once we accept the first truth that life is absurd. We can give in to despair, look to religion or some other belief system that promises meaning or rebel. Camus rejects giving in to despair. He sees it as a cop-out. He is also sceptical of religion. He thinks it’s an attempt to escape the absurd. So, what’s left? “Rebel.” “What is a rebel? A man who says no,” says Camus. No to despair. No to apathy. No to giving up. Accept the meaninglessness as a gift and live your life anyway.
“I rebel; therefore I exist,” notes Camus.
He illustrated his ideas with a myth. He used the story of Sisyphus, a figure from Greek mythology…
