A Life Worth Living: Albert Camus’s Philosophy of the Absurd

Abstract

Albert Camus was variously talented. He was a superb journalist, playwright, author of philosophical essays and novels, and a Nobel Prize winner. Whenever people hear the name Albert Camus, they instantly think of the concept of the Absurd. The Absurd may be characterized as a philosophical tension or conflict that comes from the presence of human awareness in a basically meaningless and indifferent surrounding, with its ever-pressing longing for order and purpose in life. Camus saw the Absurd as an essential and even defining feature of the modern human condition. If we have not already observed, life is absurd. We seek meaning in the world, and it responds with icy indifference. This contrast characterizes most people’s connections with the world, which is typically highlighted when senseless or meaningless tragedy happens. While the concept that existence has no inherent value might be disconcerting, many philosophers who have researched the issue believe it does not have to be that case. Albert Camus even much further, claiming that “accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.” Throughout his writings, Camus proposed many approaches to deal with this absurdity.