PHILOS 1E03 Chapter 9: Readings 9 – Albert Camus "Absurd Freedom"
11 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
What is important in life are the things that are certain and factual; things we cannot reject. All individuals have a need for clarity and cohesion. We can only understand meaning in human terms: only able to be certain about the physical; this is the only real thing that provides us with absoluteness. Camus argues against the divine / metaphysical as it does not provide absoluteness. What we believe to be true is what we must preserve: everything that seems obvious to us are things that we must not ignore. Live will be lived better if it has no meaning. The theme of permanent revolution is carried into individual experience: living is keeping the absurd alive, keeping the absurd alive is contemplating it (questioning uncertainty) The only freedom humans know is freedom of thought and action. Camus applies a kind of skepticism that has been prevalent in western philosophy since.
