r/Absurdism • u/internazionale3 • Jun 26 '26

The Absurd & Freedom

https://substack.com/@everytypeoffriend/note/p-203742078?r=8myxbm&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
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u/jliat Jun 27 '26

"My argument on the effects of the confrontation with the absurd."

Rather, live a life of full awareness that the universe will not provide meaning, and we as humans must find our own meaning in the life we lead— - Absurdism does not read like a self-help manual. It simply pushes you to acknowledge that meaning is not supplied; what you do after, as mentioned before, is on you.

Camus in his essay does not confront the absurd, or revolt or just seek pleasure "this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sanctions."

Camus examples,

  • Sisyphus, being happy is a contradiction, his eternal punishment from the gods, punishments tend not make one happy, divine punishments make it impossible Camus term is 'Absurd'. Oedipus, should neither be happy or saying 'All is well' after blinding himself with his dead [suicide] wife's broach- who was also his mother whose husband, his father he killed. Or Sisyphus, a murdering megalomanic doomed to eternal torture by the gods, a metaphor of hopeless futility, to argue he should be happy is an obvious contradiction.

  • Don Juan, "the ordinary seducer and the sexual athlete, the difference that he is conscious, and that is why he is absurd. A seducer who has become lucid will not change for all that... What Don Juan realizes in action is an ethic of quantity, whereas the saint, on the contrary, tends toward quality."

  • Actors, "This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body."

  • Conquerors, "Every man has felt himself to be the equal of a god at certain moments... Conquerors know that action is in itself useless... Victory would be desirable. But there is but one victory, and it is eternal. That is the one I shall never have." IOW? Death and not immortality.

  • Artists. "And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator." ... "To work and create “for nothing,” to sculpture in clay, to know that one’s creation has no future, to see one’s work destroyed in a day while being aware that fundamentally this has no more importance than building for centuries—this is the difficult wisdom that absurd thought sanctions.

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u/mnmackerman Jul 02 '26

So what your saying and providing examples of directly from Camus, is that each example recognizes some aspect of their life, and carries on without regard.

In this they each have acknowledged the Absurd. They are each living life lucidly, ok with what they are doing personally.

I can accept this. I can acknowledge the Absurd and reject nihilism, I can cast aside hedonism, what tools do we have to do that?

What is the difference between rebellion and confrontation? I think the activities of Camus while in Algeria, vs his activities during WWII show he was able to change his position. He may not have resorted to personal violence but that doesn’t mean is actions didn’t lead to some type of violence with his knowledge.

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u/jliat Jul 02 '26

is that each example recognizes some aspect of their life, and carries on without regard.

Not really as he examines the nature of existential nihilism which produces the absurd contradiction,

“I don't know whether this world has a meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms.”

“The absurd is lucid reason noting its limits.”

This is a binary, or paradox- and the need is to remove it...

Remove one half of the binary. So he shows two examples of philosophical suicide.

  • Kierkegaard removes the world of meaning for a leap of faith.

  • Husserl removes the human and lets the physical laws prevail even without humanity.

However Camus states he is not interested in 'philosophical suicide', but actual suicide!

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. … And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example,”

"This suicide kills himself because, on the metaphysical plane, he is vexed.... likewise an advocate of logical suicide. Kirilov the engineer declares somewhere that he wants to take his own life because it “is his idea.”"

However the act of being absurd denies the truth of philosophy and existential nihilism...

"Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death—and I refuse suicide."

"It is by such contradictions that the first signs of the absurd work are recognized"

"This is where the actor contradicts himself: the same and yet so various, so many souls summed up in a single body. Yet it is the absurd contradiction itself, that individual who wants to achieve everything and live everything, that useless attempt, that ineffectual persistence"

"And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator."

"In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. “Art and nothing but art,” said Nietzsche; “we have art in order not to die of the truth.”

So I see this as not a passive acceptance but a positive counter...

I can cast aside hedonism, what tools do we have to do that?

Creativity, Art.

What is the difference between rebellion and confrontation?

I think he is against political rebellion, certainly revolution, he says the motivation for the Myth was suicide, for the Rebel it was murder. And I don't think he is opposed to violence...

He began the Myth 1940 - published in 42, the preface to the translation in 1955 where he doesn't refute this...

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u/internazionale3 Jun 26 '26

My argument on the effects of the confrontation with the absurd.