![]() If life is too absurd to matter, one question remains-whether to commit suicide. Part 1, “An Absurd Reasoning,” posits that there is only one truly important philosophical problem: whether life is worth living. The Myth of Sisyphus contains five parts, including three extended essays on absurdity, a short piece on Sisyphus as a tragic hero of the meaningless, and an appendix that critiques Franz Kafka’s Existential novels. ![]() ![]() He criticized existentialists for peering into the abyss of life’s emptiness and backing away in fear, believing it better to stare at absurdity unblinkingly and defiantly. Though he deserves acclaim as a representative of existentialism, a philosophy that grapples with life’s meaninglessness, Camus rejected that term and instead called himself an absurdist. The tragic Greek figure Sisyphus-a rebel whom the gods punish by forcing him to push a boulder up a mountain only to watch it fall back down, over and over forever-symbolizes the absurd human condition. The huge gap between that craving and life’s actual sterility is an absurd condition that can’t be pushed aside but must be faced squarely. ![]() The book’s premise is that humans yearn deeply for something they can never have: the certainty that life is worthwhile and meaningful. ![]()
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