PHIL 1750 Lecture 15: Taylor (chapter 12)
Document Summary
A perfect image of meaninglessness is found in the ancient myth of sisyphus. He is forever condemned, nothing will come and death can"t end the infinite labor because he is already in the underworld. It doesn"t matter if the rock carried by sisyphus was a huge one or just a pebble, it doesn"t introduce the slightest meaning into his live. It is not the fact that the labors of sisyphus continue forever that deprives them of meaning, it is rather the implication of this: that they come to nothing. If instead the stones instead of rolling back to their place created a nice temple at the top the aspect of meaningless would disappear, perhaps they are not worth it but there is meaning there. The important thing to note here is that the picture hasn"t changed, sisyphus is still rolling the same rock forever, the only change is in sisyphus" view of them.