PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSONUniversity of San AgustinAY: 2014-2015: First Semester

CHAPTER 3: METAPERSONAL DIMENSIONLecture 1: The Human Experience of Pain and Suffering

Life is AbsurdAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, a small village near the seaport city of Bon (present-day Annaba) in the northeast region of French Algeria. He was the second child of Lucien Auguste Camus, a military veteran and wine-shipping clerk, and of Catherine Marie Cardona, a house-keeper and part-time factory worker. In 1957 the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Albert Camus whose clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience... Camus background as an Algerian journalist, as an essayist and playwright, as well as his role in the French resistance during World War II, form the well-spring of his belief in the possibility of the moral life and the consequent triumph of human value in response to the experience of the absurd. Camus work exemplifies our capacity to impose meaning vis--vis the desolation of human existence. Although he is thought of as an existentialist, Camus rejected that label because of his devotion to personal moral value. For Camus, morality is not a matter of expediency. Camus in Le Mythe de Sisyphe affirms that only by facing the absurd can I act authentically; otherwise, I adopt a convenient attitude of wishful thinking. Although I cannot count on the consequences of my actions, my lifes meaning comes from seizing awareness of what I do. I must act in the face of meaninglessI must revolt against the absurdif I am not to despair from the ultimate hopelessness and limitations of my life. What is the Absurd? In existentialism absurdity refers to the meaninglessness of human existence that derives from its lack of ground or ultimate purpose. The absurd refers to the meaninglessness or the pointlessness of life. As we live in this world we are searching for the meaning of life but unfortunately we are faced with lifes meaninglessness. We are searching for meaning of our life and existence in this world but the world does not seem to provide us with the meaning that we are looking. The absurd indeed refers to our failure to find meaning in our life and existence. As rational beings we search for a rational meaning of life and existence. However the world seems to be irrational, cold and silent by not providing man with answers in his search for meaning. This irrational silence of the world is understood as its failure to satisfy the longing and needs of man. Absurdity at the bottom is the failure of the world to satisfy our human demand.Man endlessly seeks for meaning, however in the end the world is revealed, to the clear-sighted man, as without any determinate purpose or meaning. Man achieves and attains a lot of success in life but yet find no meaning and happiness in it. Man tries to exhaust every means to find meaning in work, society and achievements but still man finds no meaning in them. Many people have achieved and reached a lot in life in life but yet they feel meaningless and emptiness in life. The absurdity of our situation is caused by the gap between our longings and the reality of our condition. The feeling of absurdity is related to the feeling of reaching our longings but unable to do so because of our condition, it is humanly impossible.The Myth of SisyphusSisyphus was punished by the gods for all eternity to roll a rock up a mountain. However, whenever he reaches the top the stone would be roll back down to the bottom. Sisyphus has to roll the rock up again to the top of the mountain. Sisyphus continually accepts the struggle even without any hope of success. He endures the punishment by repeating the task and this is victory for him. It is a situation that seems helpless and even suicidal for him. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Albert Camus claims that Sisyphus is the ideal absurd hero. Sisyphus must struggle perpetually and without hope of success. So long as he accepts that there is nothing more to life than this absurd struggle, then he can find happiness in it.In face of the absurd, what shall man do?As man is confronted with the absurdity of life how is a person supposed to face the absurdity of life? Is there still a reason to live life when man is faced with the impossibility of finding meaning in a meaningless world? If life is absurd is it still worth living? The most basic question that man encounters is how to face the absurdity of life? Given the impossibility to find meaning in a meaningless world and the absurdity of life what shall man do? There are three choices in facing the absurdity of life namely to commit suicide, belief in a transcendent and spiritual being or idea or lastly to face the absurd. He considered the first and the second solution as a type of evading the problem and is not really solutions. I am going to deal with each of the choices presented in facing the absurd and discuss Camuss own view regarding each choice. Camus is considered as an existentialist philosopher since the problem of human choice and decision are the themes of his writings. Physical suicideFirst is regarding the choice of physical suicide. Suicide as introduced by Camus in his book The Myth of Sisyphus considered as the only serious philosophical problem. The choice and the decision of committing a suicide is indeed a concern for an existentialist philosopher. The basic question is whether life is worth living; to answer it negatively makes suicide the proper logical alternative. It is in this sense that suicide becomes a serious philosophical problem. It is proper that we dwell much on this choice in order to understand why Camus considered suicide as a serious philosophical problem. We wonder perhaps if Camus does affirm or accept the choice of suicide as the solution to the absurd. Certainly not, Camus rejected such choice. Suicide is not however the action recommended by Camus. Suicide as a solution to the absurd would be a defeat; it is a denial of the very condition of mans existence. In Camus opinion suicide means surrender to the absurd, a capitulation. Human pride and greatness are shown neither in surrender nor in the sort of escapism indulged in by the existential philosophers... It is clear that Camus rejects suicide as a choice or solution to the absurd. Though life is faced with absurdity, Camus rejects suicide. Camus rejects suicide as a choice because he believed that we cannot solve the problem of the absurd by negating its existence. He maintained that suicide cannot be regarded as an adequate response to the experience of absurdity. The reason he gives is that suicide deals with absurdity simply by suppressing one of the two poles, the human being and the world. Suicide is a form of negating or suppressing one of the two poles. In this case suicide eliminates the problem but it does not solve it. Suicide is a way of evading the problem and thus a cowardly solution to the absurd.Camus holds high esteem and regard of human pride which he sees as in contrast with the persons choice to commit suicide. The choice of suicide is a cowardly choice in facing the absurdity of life in contrast with the human pride. Suicide is an admission of human incapacity, and such admission is inconsistent with that human pride to which Camus appeals. Camus esteem regarding human pride is consistent with his belief that man should never surrender by killing himself killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much and that it is not worth living for you or that you do not understand it.

Believe or hope in a transcendent being or idea. For Camus there is no appeal to the transcendence and he dismisses such as pointless hope. Traditional theological and philosophical standards that give meaning to the life of man are no longer intellectually available to modern man Hope is found in an alleged solution to the absurd which lies beyond knowledge. It may be God or history or reason, but such a solution similar with suicide does not solve the problem, it eliminates it by arguments for which there is insufficient evidence. He considered such solution as similar to suicide and calls it as philosophical suicide. The second solution is also considered as evading the problem. By appealing to a transcendent idea or being man simply escapes the problem of the absurd. This was considered an escape since such solution does not consider reason. To consider the appeal to the transcendent is similar to the Kierkegaardian leap of faith, but for Camus there is no such leap of faith in facing the absurd. Face or embrace the absurd.The last choice is to face and live or embrace the absurd. It is this last choice that Camus favors or suggests. The choice to live with the absurd and to face it is the valid and authentic choice. Since the absurd in Camus view is an unavoidable, indeed defining, characteristic of the human condition, the only proper response to it is full, unflinching and courageous acceptance; life, he says, can be lived all the better if it has no meaning. He believed that only by going on living in the face of their own absurdity can human beings achieve their full stature. This is similar to what other existentialists such as Karl Jaspers believed that illumination of existence is achieved when a person recognizes that human existence is revealed most profoundly in his experience of those extreme situations that define the human condition-conflict, guilt, suffering and death. In this sense the absurd helps us to live life to its fullest. Camus suggests that the only way is to face, accept and embrace the absurd. The absurd being the only truth, the essence of the human situation, the only proper alternative is to live with it. In our ordinary experience it is the struggle to face the absurd that we gain meaning in life. The last choice that Camus suggests is the acceptance of the absurd which is to live in spite of it. In acknowledging the absurdity of seeking any inherent meaning, but continuing this search regardless, one can be happy, gradually developing his or her own meaning from the search alone.

The Concept of RevoltRevolt is the feeling that accompanies the acceptance of the absurd. It is one of the feelings that may admit of the absurd. It is the spirit of defiance in the face of the absurd. Revolt refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd. More technically and less metaphorically, it is a spirit of opposition against any perceived unfairness, oppression, or indignity in the human condition. Revolt is the awareness of a crushing fate, but without the resignation that ought to accompany it. No matter how meaningless life is, we should not surrender and resign, instead we must perpetually struggle. It is not the fact of reaching the top that matters but it is the act of struggling that makes life meaningful.

1