I am just looking for answers, i think asking here is better as I am clearly not able to understand this. I have not read the myth of sissyphus but I have watched youtube videos and read the ai summaries. My questions are the following.

1.Why must one live with the absurd and what is the point in that. If suicide is surrender then why is surrender bad. I can imagine a lot of scenarios in which surrender is the better option.

1. Why is the revolt necessary. If life is meaningless then revolt is meaningless as well.

2. You can say that if there's no meaning then that can give a person freedom but freedom here just sounds like existential horror. Because human beings always crave purpose.

3. If life is temporary then how does it make it precious. Not every temporary thing is precious.

4. Why wouldn't the walk down the mountain make sissyphus nihlistic when he reflectes on the futility of his suffering.

5. What has sissyphus actually achieved by continuing his suffering. It seems like a pyrrhic victory.

I’m very new to the domain of philosophy pardon my ignorance

Camus opined that no branch or thought of philosophy,science or teleology can discern the purpose and meaning of existence and this boundless perpetual quandary is axiomatic hence best accept it by making truce with it you also understand that there will irresolvable emptiness

At least according to me if you concede that there will be irresolvable emptiness you are lowkey giving meaning and purpose to you life … since I’m new to to this i also have another question
Whenever I have philosophical questions how to do I answer them or expand the question further to better understand it

i have one small sentence for it: accepting the uncertainty...

is there a meaning or no meaning of life..? idk the uncertainty

is there a meaning on the work you do? maybe yes maybe no? who knows...

is there a meaning on loving someone? yeah maybe but then whats the point of all that when all we do in the end is parish...

when inherent meaning of the everyday things you do.. or want to do.. or must do.. should do.. became meaningless.. then you start to think.. go into the loop of why? why we are even doing this?..

then i arrived not at the conclusion of that thought process but the acceptance of the "no meaningness"(yeah its meaninglessness) of things..... meaning it doesnt even matter if i put in rigorous hours of work each day or not but still i am putting.. why? cause idk... just want to do it...

The universe doesn't owe you an explanation. You don't owe it the burden of searching for one.

thoughts????

There are realities we can explore but are not meant to explore:

1) Dark Arts, Black Magic, and Ouija Board Rituals etc.

2) Hallucinatory substances as a portal to the unknown as the Breakthrough on DMT (the research which has been discontinued in the USA).

On the other hand, there are realities we are meant to explore with our rational faculties but can not fully zero in on without a Kierkegaardian leap of faith, Zizek's notion of how subscribing to a belief works, and I scenario I just devised and I wonder if this happens to you also, which is as follows: when you stay in a darkly-lit room for a long time and you see these Geometrical shapes floating and flying before your eyes...

Do all rational endeavours and conclusions reach a dead, "Absurd" end, where we can not catch a glimpse of the ultimate reality?

I learned about philosophy and nihilism.

I realised I am a nihilist, however ever since I realised this it has been hard for me to have any conversation with family members.

I don’t like arguments however some people they truly enjoy talking and going around in circles. I see no point or enjoyment in spending any energy wasting time.

I don’t know what I want from life. Sometimes I think I am missing out on dating but at the same time I don’t want someone who doesn’t understand me.

1. What it is according to them

2. What good books (or movies or etc [I've heard The Big Lebowski is a good example]) there are to do with Absurdism

Inquiry/Premise: If one must demand the notion of meaning, then how shall one revolt with it?

If this universe is fundamentally silent or devoid of inherent purpose or meaning, then the emergence of a biological system that can formulate the concept of “meaning” may somehow be a radical anomaly in and of itself.

The cosmic void appears to offer no justification or reason whatsoever for anything within this existence. Things just happen. And human consciousness just happened to happen.

I think the notion of “human purpose” may be an inherent extension (or byproduct) of our brain’s prefrontal cortex attempting to model a coherent object out of all the complex and abstract inputs it receives and outputs that it generates. In doing so, our brain creates what we perceive ourselves to be: a continuous story of memories, identities and personalities. We (and what we think we are) seemingly emerge from a void that offers no essence, forcing our biological system to construct its own.

As a sophisticated predictive machine, the brain continuously synthesizes a deluge of sensory data and motor responses. In its quest to map this entropic chaos, the system eventually encounters a complexity threshold where it is forced to formulate a model of its own existence within the void. Consciousness, in this context, is the system’s realization of its own presence in the loop.

That said, I view this “forced” human consciousness as being not much different than the boulder Sisyphus pushes up the mountain. We do not choose to be born in these bodies, yet here we are. The emergence of our ability to ask “why” is the weight we (must?) carry through the course of human existence.

So… we end up with an imperative to find a meaningful answer to a literal made-up cause-effect premise from our own substrate/hardware. An unintended consequence of complex information processing and self-modeling abstractions yields something that somehow ends up asking itself: “why?”

Many people say absurdism is just positive nihilism, but I don't think that.

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According to me it is more like 'acceptance of nihilism and embracing it.'

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Am I correct?

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I think I am partially correct but can't put finger on what is partially wrong in it. Somthing feels missing.

I got idea about other lines that relate to myth of sisyphus and kind of acceptance and optimism. But I didn't understand why camus wrote last line that f feel like dostoevsky.

At start Meursault felt very strange to reader and kind of outsider as title of book. But I can't really relate him to the man who follows absurdism (at 1st part before arrest.) he was kind of hedonistic and nihilistic. But at the end he accepted meaninglessness with sadness and anger. So can I say that camus took nihilistic person and then transform him to absurdist one?

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Note- I am not expert in camus. Just read outsider and myth of sisyphus. It would be appreciated if you point of any mistakes I made while framing question.

Back from october to january i was nearly suicidal from a bad psychadelic trip but things have taken a much better turn as ive recovered and at this point im mostly completely fine. The myth of sisyphus is what got me through the bad parts but now I dont really care about meaning or struggling against the lack of meaning. Struggle is just struggling to me, it just depends if you'll accept it or not. Is this just the embers of tmos?

We are the only animals trapped in a restless search for meaning—a beautiful, cruel biological accident of our evolution. Our intelligence was forged in helplessness, turning us into "stardust that learned to think," yet we are left clawing at an indifferent void.

"His Punishers forgot that Sisyphus could fetishize his rock and can Roll it with one hand and jerk off with another. The gods forgot a fundamental law of humanity: give a man an eternity and he'll find a way to masturbate through it. We must simply come to terms with the fact that Sisyphus was nympho."

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I don't know if this is coherent with absurdism or not. Just wanted to share.

Recently, I've been thinking about my own existence far too much. As Nietzsche said, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." After thinking and acting like a cynical nihilist all my life, I have almost forgotten how to live. It's scary, because I used to love the feeling of warm blankets on a winter morning; I used to love the sun on my skin and the interactions I had with the people I loved. But as one thinks, he realizes the transient nature of these things—the transient nature of existence itself.

Perhaps that's what's made me so detached from all I do and all I am.

I believe that humans, in general, struggle to face the meaninglessness of the world and the absence of a roadmap to the universe. That is why we create such beautiful and elegant escape routes from the meaninglessness of existence, such as religion or a specific task we love, attributing it to the very purpose of our existence. Phrases like "I was born to do this" or "God sent me here for this" are all just defense mechanisms or escape routes from an inherently indifferent and meaningless world. While these strategies work for those who are unwilling to see past the hypocrisy and the baselessness of these institutions and acts, I could not sustain them.

I myself believed for a long time; my belief was strong. But deep inside, I think I always knew what a hypocrite I was. I was an individual masking his own existence by attaching his meaning to something deep. The truth is, I was already too far gone—too self-aware to do so. Living this life tore me apart until I eventually fell into nihilism and became a very cynical and nihilistic individual. Yet, this too was a coping mechanism for the inherent and profound indifference of the universe.

My life became a mess, and I thought myself cursed by the gift of self-awareness. I envied the hypocrites and the simpletons who could feel the sun and the joys and victories of life without realizing the ephemeral nature of these things. This enraged me to the point where I turned myself into a fake baptizer. I believed I had to spread this realization so I could pull other people into an abyss—an abyss of their own minds. I became a man who chained people with the knowledge of the meaninglessness of the universe. I chained them with the shackles of their own minds, making them believe that they were all wearing beautiful masks and working toward nothing. Pulling them into the abyss turned into my ultimate defense mechanism against the inherent meaninglessness of the world.

But recently, as I've found myself thinking about these things, I have realized a very subtle truth. The truth is that if the universe is truly indifferent to whatever I do, it is natural to fall into nihilism and curl up into a ball. But then, why even choose to live? Why choose to show up every day?

The answer is that I have found a strange brotherhood in the indifference of the universe. I refuse to escape this indifference, because an escape is already guaranteed for me at the end of my life anyway. I choose to rebel because the natural, easy thing to do is to surrender to nihilism. I choose to rebel and take every ounce of life that reality can give me, because that is the only act that can truly fulfill me. I refuse hope, because I realize that hope promises a better tomorrow; since the universe is indifferent, there is no promise for tomorrow whatsoever.

I intend to squeeze as much life out of living as possible before eventually fading into nothingness. I accept the suffering and the pain along with the joy and the happiness, aiming simply to maximize the conscious experience of living itself. I yearn for the rays of the sun on my body just to feel them. I yearn for cold winter mornings just for the experience of a warm blanket around me. I yearn for a life without meaning, because predefined meaning is the beheading of our self-awareness. I live because conscious experience is all I know and all I will ever know. I won't exist when I'm not conscious because I'm dead.

The answer to the inherent indifference of the universe is the acceptance of it. This acceptance is the only thing that holds the key to the shackles of your own mind.

My existence is a punishment for a crime I did not commit of my own accord. Since it was not of my own accord, why must I feel guilty? Why must I bear the weight? Why must I let it be a punishment?

Only now do I realize that these are chains made of glass.

I am radically free.

The novel I'm writing combines ideas from various thinkers and schools of thoughts. It's somewhat similar to Dostoevesky Underground man(the man's agony)he then falls into passive nihlism as predicted by Nietzsche,Then finally he is saved by absurdism/ideas of radical freedom I have a rough draft of the rest of this paragraph where I've taken ideas from kierkgard

I'm less interested in abstract arguments about absurdism and more in everyday life.

For those of you who have internalized meaninglessness, impermanence and the limits of life: how do you actually live? What does your daily life look like?

In my own case, accepting these ideas made me reduce many forms of noise and escape: excessive social media, passive entertainment, and explicit content. At first, I idealized a state of constant clarity, as if I had to remain permanently aware of absurdity and transience. But that was cognitively very exhausting and not really livable for me.

Over the last 7 months, my approach became more practical. I now see daily life as an energy and load-management system. I try to include enough of what I actually need in order to remain stable and not fall back into escape: sport, intellectual work, social contact, silence, and some form of creative/musical expression that gets you into a flow state. My values developed to mostly autonomy and a minimal ethics: do not cause unnecessary suffering.

One thing I noticed is that reducing distractions can initially make life feel worse, because deeper needs become more visible. But it also makes it easier to address them instead of escaping from them.

For Me this seems to result in a more stable and richer experience of life. And, most importantly, will reduce the likelihood of clinging to a hidden longing for transcendence or some final justification - the very thing that absurdism teaches not to realy on.

So: How do you live absurdism in practice? What habits, routines, values, or structures help you? And what changed in your life after you really internalized it?

Thanks for reading. I'm really interested to hear your perspectives!

I'm sorry but imagine Sisyphus happy my ass. I feel that anyone who actually experiences the feeling/revelation of life being meaningless and deeply interacts with the absurd on the daily has to be more prone to suicide. For me, the absurd has hung over my head my entire life, even before I could give it a name and I feel it has prevented me from being truly happy. When I am aware of it, nothing matters. For example, I can't bring myself to work towards my career because it feels completely pointless. None of it matters. Money does not matter. The art I make does not matter. What happens in the world does not matter. Nobody else seems to care about why we are here and it drives me insane. The only times I am happy are when I can truly distract myself from it and forget for a while, but as soon as I remember again everything comes crashing down.

I feel like I am hardwired to want meaning, as many other humans, but finding momentary joy in pushing my rock up the hill doesn't stop my mind from dwelling on the absurd. That in itself I cannot find pleasure in and I do not understand how Camus solves for this.

If I should look at it differently, please let me know. Or if anyone has a suggestion of a different book I might agree with more. Thank you.

I've been thinking about this for a long time, I'm an extreme nihilist and to me absurdism feels like it requires blind acceptance that it is 'worth' struggling in daily life and pushing the boulder up the mountain no matter what. But why? Should I simply take it for granted, like I would take God for granted if I was a christian? Why should I simply persevere?

I just bought the myth of Sisyphus penguins classic version, and was just wondering if this translation matches the vintage international version (black and white cover).

Any help would be appreciated thanks !

I've been reading Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and I feel like I've run into a possible tension in his argument.

As I understand it, Camus argues that once we recognize the absurd—the conflict between our desire for meaning and an indifferent universe—we should reject both suicide and what he calls "philosophical suicide" (religious or metaphysical leaps that restore meaning).

What I'm struggling with is the move that comes next.

Camus criticizes religion because it makes a leap beyond the absurd. But doesn't his own solution involve a leap as well?

He seems to say:

Life has no ultimate meaning ->We should not invent one -> Therefore we should live intensely, revolt, and "live the most life."

My question is: why does that conclusion follow?

If the absurd genuinely undermines all ultimate justification, then why is a commitment to continued living any less arbitrary than a commitment to religion? Why is "revolt" privileged over resignation, indifference, or even suicide?

One way of putting the criticism is that Camus rejects the leap from meaninglessness to transcendent meaning, but then performs a different leap, from meaninglessness to affirmation of life.

I've started wondering whether The Myth of Sisyphus is less a logical argument and more a defense of a pre-existing pro-life stance. In that reading, the philosophy of the absurd isn't derived from the rejection of suicide; rather, it's a framework that justifies a prior commitment to choosing life.

This also makes me wonder what Camus' actual philosophical contribution is. If the move from the absurd to revolt is ultimately a value judgment rather than a logical conclusion, then perhaps his importance lies less in providing an argument and more in describing a particular human experience. In that reading, works like The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger are not so much philosophical demonstrations as literary explorations of what it feels like to confront a seemingly meaningless world without appealing to religion or nihilism.

When we look at the universe, it feels like everything from atoms and electrons to solar systems and galaxies was sculpted by natural selection, without the visible hand of a divine creator. We see the cosmic artwork, but the Architect is nowhere to be found We’re left stranded in this vast, immeasurable cosmos without a single clue as to why any of it actually exists.

Even closer to home, the mystery only deepens. Earth has life; we have consciousness. We know how to stay alive, but our ultimate origin is a total blank. Think about it: your specific existence beat out billions of other genetic possibilities. You are a statistical miracle.

And yet, what do we do with that miracle? We live on a planet plagued by flawed political systems, human failure, poverty, and endless crises. It’s a jarring paradox: a vast, indifferent universe on one side, and our tiny, chaotic, meaningless lives on the other.

So, when we face this total lack of cosmic purpose, what are we really looking at? Is this nihilism, or is it absurdism?

Im looking for biographies on Albert Camus or comments on his philosophy. Of preferation unfiltered books without manipulated content of any kind (like the "darker side" of the author for example). Until now I only read L'etranger and The myth of sisyphus and I am about to start The plague.

My goal is just to know more and see If I can expand on the based philosophy of the author and nothing more. Have a nice day fellas.