The Myth of Sisyphus
In the eternal cycle of pushing a stone uphill, only to watch it roll down again each day, what meaning can we find?
Chapter 1 - An Absurd Reasoning
Chapter 1.1 - Absurdity & Suicide
Life's worth becomes the ultimate question. Some perish because they deem existence meaningless, while others die for the very ideals that gave their lives purpose. Indeed, what gives life meaning simultaneously justifies its end.
To choose death is to declare living is not worth the trouble. Such a choice acknowledges the madness in our daily routines, the absence of meaning for living and the uselessness of our existence.
In a world we can comprehend, even through flawed logic, we find familiarity. But when one becomes a stranger in an alien landscape, stripped of promised meaning, absurdity emerges. In this second realm, suicide appears as a rational response to life's inherent absurdity.
Chapter 1.2 - Absurd Wall
Absurdity permeates our existence. One moment we're consumed by mundane tasks, racing against time; the next, an existential dread overwhelms us, bringing unanswerable questions. Sometimes we pause, struck by our mortality, conscious of our inevitable march toward death.
These observations aren't novel - they echo through literature and daily discourse. What proves crucial isn't the recognition of absurdity, but its implications.
We remain eternal strangers to ourselves. Though we may catalog our attributes and characteristics, t heir sum fails to capture our essence. Multiple truths exist, but no singular truth prevails. "Know thyself" becomes a hollow phrase when we can only grasp approximations of our true nature.
Chapter 1.3 - Philosophical Suicide
Absurdity emerges from contradiction - the divorce between expectation and reality. It resides neither in humanity nor in the world, but in their uneasy coexistence.
Existential philosophers propose various escapes from this absurdity.
Karl Jaspers elevates the absurd to divinity, where incomprehension becomes the illuminating force of existence.
For Shestov, we turn to God seeking the impossible, while humans suffice for the possible. Acknowledging absurdity means accepting it, only to banish it. The absurd transcends human existence, residing with God in eternity.
Søren Kierkegaard transforms contradiction and paradox into religious criteria. Life's despair reveals its truth and clarity. In failure, faith finds triumph. When nothing is certain, everything becomes possible.
Edmund Husserl deifies the abstract realm, where reason knows no bounds. Universal laws persist independent of their application, suggesting eternal truths beyond physical reality. Yet the absurd establishes its limits, powerless against its own anguish.
Chapter 1.4 - Absurd Freedom
To live authentically is to embrace life's meaninglessness. Living means sustaining the absurd - abandoning hope without surrendering to resignation. Constant struggle maintains our awareness of this condition.
Suicide represents ultimate acceptance, simultaneously destroying both human consciousness and absurdity itself. The absurd individual lives condemned to death, aware of impending doom yet defiant. This rebellion reveals the only truth: defiance itself.
Facing death eliminates the future, liberating us to view life from a distance and embrace its breadth. This freedom, like all freedoms of action, has definite limits. The absurd man faces a finite universe beyond which lies nothingness, choosing to accept this reality and draw strength from it, refusing false hope while embracing life without consolation.
For the absurd individual, freedom gains meaning only through its limitations. Greater struggle equals greater life. Quality yields to quantity - not better living, but more living becomes the goal. Two lives of equal length offer equal experience; awareness makes the difference. Maximum awareness of life, revolt, and freedom enables maximum living.
This philosophy defines a way of thinking, but the essential task remains: to live.
Chapter 2 - The Absurd Man
Chapter 2.1 - Don Juanism
Don Juan embodies passionate love for all women equally, compelling endless pursuit. His clarity about his limitations frees him from melancholy.
The inevitable end, anticipated but never desired, becomes insignificant.
Chapter 2.2 - Drama
All glory fades. In ten millennia, Goethe's works will be dust, his name forgotten. This meditation breeds indifference to temporary concerns, directing our attention to life's only certainty: the present moment.
Chapter 2.3 - Conquest
The wise embrace what they have, refusing to speculate about what they lack.
Chapter 3 - Absurd Creation
Chapter 3.1 - Philosophy & Fiction
Creating art doubles life's intensity, combining experience with reflection. All humans attempt to mirror, repeat, and recreate their reality. Creation becomes the ultimate mimicry.
Thought begins with world-creation, or at minimum, world-limitation.
Chapter 3.2 - Kirilov
All becomes acceptable, everything permitted, nothing hateful.
Chapter 3.3 - Ephemeral Creation
To create without purpose, to shape clay knowing its impermanence, to watch one's work destroyed while understanding its cosmic insignificance - this equals building for eternity.
Creation shapes fate as much as fate shapes creation. The boundary between being and appearing dissolves.
Chapter 4 - The Myth of Sisyphus
Personal fate exists without higher destiny. The upward struggle itself fills the heart completely. We must imagine Sisyphus happy.