> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://isubasinghe.gitbook.io/isithas-wiki/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://isubasinghe.gitbook.io/isithas-wiki/philosophy/existentialism/albert_camus.md). # Albert Camus ## Basic idea French-Algerian writer-philosopher (1913-1960). Distinguished himself from existentialism as an *absurdist*: life has no inherent meaning, but suicide is not the answer — revolt, freedom, and passion are. ## Key tenets * The Absurd: the collision between human longing for meaning and the universe's silence. * Three responses considered, two rejected (suicide, philosophical leap to faith), one embraced: revolt. * "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" — meaning is forged in the struggle, not at its end. * Solidarity and ordinary decency are the practical ethics of an absurd world. ## Albert Camus > The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. > > Become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion. ## Le Peste (The Plague) Oran is an ordinary town. Dr.Rio comes across dead rats, soon the town is overcome by hordes of dead rats. Something is afoot. Soon an epidemic siezes Oran. Camus was not writing about one plague in particular. Camus was referring to the plague we all suffer from, death itself. The actual historical events we call plagues are simply accelerations of this already exisiting plague. **Our lives are fundementally absurd** ### Ourselves Like the residents of Oran, we assume we have immortality to this plague and with this naivity come behaviours Camus abhored. * Hardness of heart. * Obsession of status * Judgement. Resources: *