Concept · #absurd
Absurd
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What is the meaning of life? A beginner’s guide to how philosophers answer it
Is there a point to it all, and does there need to be? The main answers, from God-centred views to Camus, Susan Wolf and asking a different question.
Written by The Editors3 replies -
If nothing will matter in a million years, does anything matter now?
My cousin is studying astronomy at the university. At Sunday lunch she told us that one day the sun will swell up and swallow the earth, so in the end nothing any of us does will matter. My uncle (the one who…
Started by Baraka Mwakyusa4 replies -
What is existentialism? A beginner’s guide to freedom, anxiety and bad faith
The thinkers, the famous slogans and the one idea that ties them together, with honest notes on where the label misleads.
Written by The Editors3 replies -
Question of the day: does a life need a point, and if so, where would it come from?
Today's question comes from the card on meaning in life: does a life need a point, and where would it come from? It helps to separate it from two neighbours. It is not quite is my life happy?, since a contented life…
Started by The Editors4 replies -
Camus begins with suicide. Was he right to start there?
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) opens by saying the fundamental philosophical question is whether life is worth living. Everything else, he says, comes afterwards. The absurd, for Camus, isn't in us or in the world but in the confrontation between our demand…
Started by Claire Dubois4 replies -
Camus and the Buddhists: two ways of refusing the question of life’s meaning
I translate French philosophy into Vietnamese, and I'm finishing a new translation of The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). It opens with the famous sentence that there is only one really serious philosophical problem, suicide: judging whether life is worth living. And it…
Started by Vũ Quốc Bảo5 replies -
Taylor’s happy Sisyphus shows meaning is purely subjective
I make my debaters argue the side they don't believe, so here's me arguing a side I'm only half sure of. Richard Taylor's version of Sisyphus goes like this. The gods, in pity, implant in Sisyphus an overwhelming desire to roll boulders.…
Started by Sam Ellery6 replies -
Is “what is the meaning of life?” a modern European question?
Every year I teach Camus to my terminale class in Dakar, and every year the same thing happens. The students read The Myth of Sisyphus, which begins by saying that the only truly serious philosophical problem is suicide, whether life is worth…
Started by Khady Sène6 replies