Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” PHIL 102, UBC Christina Hendricks Spring 2017 Unless there are images noted otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0
Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus”
PHIL 102, UBCChristina Hendricks
Spring 2017
Unless there are images noted otherwise, this presentation is licensed CC BY 4.0
Camus in 1957, public domain on Wikimedia Commons
Algeria & France, 1913-1960
Evolution of French Algeria 1830-1962, Wikimedia Commons, free art license.
Ancient Greek myth of SisyphusWhat Camus does with this:
• Ilustration of absurdity of human life
• Shows the attitude we ought to take to it Sisyphus, by Titian, public domain on Wikimedia
Commons
How could this be possible?
Particularly when he walks back down to start over again? (2, 3)
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy” (3)
Sisyphus icon purchased from thenounproject.com
Smiley icon licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
How might we say our lives are like Sisyphus’ task?
Or are they perhaps not?
Our lives, too, are absurd
Overall questions Camus is addressing
• The “fundamental question of philosophy: “judging whether life is or is not worth living” (3)
• “the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions” (4)
If there is no universal meaning of life, is life still worth living?
What is absurdity?A “contradiction,” a “divorce” between two things (7)
What humans want
What the universe offers
Absurdity of human life
Beginning to feel absurdity“It happens that the
stage sets collapse…” (5)
“…one day the ‘why’ arises …” (5)York Theatre, Flickr photo shared by Sandra Cohen-Rose & Colin Rose, licensed CC BY 2.0
Contradictions: Time“We live on the future” (5), but this ends in death
Everything we do/work for will come to nothing
today tomorrow tomorrow . . .tomorrow…
Sandcastle image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
Contradictions:Indifference of universe
The universe is “dense,” foreign, with “primitive hostility” (5)
Image of galaxy by NASA
“That stage scenery masked by habit becomes again what it is” (5-
6)
Curtain image and Grand Central Station licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
How to respond to absurdity?
Not by suicide
Resolves the contradiction by eliminating our desires
Resolves the contradiction by ignoring the reality of life & the universe
What humans want
What the universe offers
Not by “eluding” (4)
Eluding/hope
Image of earth by NASA
Image of galaxy by NASABell image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
How to respond to absurdity?
Acknowledge and revolt against absurdity at the same time
What could this mean?
REVOLT
Acknowledge absurdity
Believing you
will find meaning
Ignoring how
world is (eluding)
Eliminating human desires
(suicide)
Revolt against absurdit
y
Revolt is “not aspiration, for it is devoid of hope. … [I]t is the certainty of a crushing fate, without the resignation that ought to accompany it” (8).
Resignation, giving
up
Both involve middle ground
Acknowledgement & revoltAcknowledge both:
o What we want from the universe (e.g., meaning, purpose; don’t give this up)
o That the universe won’t give this to us (don’t think you’ll succeed in getting what you want)
Image of space licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
Acknowledgement & revolt• Be defiant, not complacent, accepting of
absurdity• Continue to struggle, to revolt, knowing
you won’t succeed
Sisyphus is “ a blind man eager to see who knows the night has no end” (3)
Freedom“to the extent to which I hope, to which I worry about a … way of being or creating, to the extent to which … I accept [life] having a meaning, I create for myself barriers between which I confine my life” (9).
Why must we imagine Sisyphus (and us) happy?
“Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart” (3).
“the purest of joys” is “feeling, and feeling on this earth” (not in our selection). Mountain ima
gelicensed CC0 pixabay.com