Albert Camus – An Absurd Hero
Michel
“It's better to bet on this life than on the next.”
Albert Camus:
The smiling Sisyphus
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
• Born Nov. 7, 1913 in Mondovi, French Algeria
• Father dies in 1914 during World War I, only story
Albert knows is that his father became violently ill
at a public execution.
• Mother was illiterate, partially deaf, and afflicted
with a speech disorder – very poor.
• Attended elementary in a school close to a
Moslem community and saw first-hand the idea of
the “outsider” he would later develop.
Significant Events
• High school: developed a lifetime love for
literature, theater, and film.
• Also enjoyed soccer for sport and the life
lessons it taught him
“I learned . . . that a ball never arrives from a
direction you expected it. That helped me later in
life, especially in mainland France, where nobody
plays straight.”
Significant Events
• Briefly joined the Communist Party but was
disillusioned by the mindless, even absurd, work
he was assigned to do.
• In the 1940’s his writing began to attract
international attention.
• In 1957, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was
grateful, but he felt he had not yet achieved the
fame such an award indicated.
Significant Events
On January 4, 1960, Camus died tragically in a car
accident.
The Tenets of Absurdism
• There is such a thing as meaning or value.
• If there is inherent meaning in the universe,
humans cannot understand it.
• Individuals can create meaning in life
themselves, but it is not essential.
The Tenets of Absurdism
• The pursuit of intrinsic or extrinsic meaning in
the universe is not possible, but it may add
meaning to the personal life
• There is a solution to the individual's desire to
seek meaning, and it is the acknowledgement
and embracing of absurdity.
Camus’ View of Absurdism
• Life is not useless or without purpose.
• The universe lacks logic.
• Meaning in life comes from a person’s ability to
affect his/her own destiny.
• Human existence is defined by our relationships with
each other, not an absurd and illogical universe.
Absurdism and Religion
• Religion and absurdism is a paradox. The
absence of God in a person’s life can
simultaneously be accompanied by a longing
for “salvation and meaning that only God can
provide”.
An Important Decision
• The Absurd arises out of the fundamental
disharmony between the individual’s search for
meaning and the apparent meaninglessness of the
universe.
An Important Decision
• Humans have three ways of resolving the dilemma:
• Suicide
• Religious belief in a transcendent reality, commonly
called “the leap of faith”.
• Acceptance of the Absurd
Suicide
• (Escaping existence) Camus dismissed the
viability of this option because death only
adds to the absurdity of the Universe; it does
not solve the riddle.
Religious belief
• Camus called this option “Philosophical
Suicide” because it requires the individual to
reject their personal ability to seek out
meaning rationally.
Acceptance of the Absurd
One must accept and even embrace the
Absurd and continue to live in spite of it,
Camus endorsed this option deciding that life
can be given meaning through its struggle
against the Absurd and meaninglessness.
The Mount Everest Allegory
Work Cited
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Camus, Albert. "Niether Victims nor Executioners." November 1946. Online Texts. 10 April 2010
<http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/camus/sp001174.txt>.
—. "The Blood of Freedom." 24 August 1944. Online Texts. 10 April 2010
<http://members.bellatlantic.net/~samg2/freedom.html>.
—. "The Myth of Sysiphus." 1942. Online Texts. 10 April 2010
<http://members.bellatlantic.net/~samg2/sysiphus.html>.
—. "The Night of Truth." 24 August 1944. Online Texts. 10 April 2010
<http://members.bellatlantic.net/~samg2/truth.html>.
Camus, Catherine. SPIKE interviews Catherine Camus, daughter of Albert Camus Russell Wilkinson.
October 1995.
Crystal, Garry. Who is Albert Camus? - WiseGEEK. 24 April 2010 <http://www.wisegeek.com/who-is-albertcamus.htm>.
May, William F. "Albert Camus: Politcal Moralist." 24 November 1958. Religion Online Website. 24 April
2010 <http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=397>.
The European Graduate School. Albert Camus - Biography. 10 April 2010
<http://www.egs.edu/media/library-of-philosophy/albert-camus/biography/>.
Further Readings
•
Camus, Albert. The Plague. The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays. New York:
Everyman's Library, 2004.
•
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus. The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays.
New York: Everyman's Library, 2004.