“There is only one question of philosophy that really matters, suicide. To make a judgment about whether life is worth living is to answer the basic question of philosophy. ”

Here is the philosophical essay book of Albert Camus, which focuses on Absurdism. In the book published in 1942 in the same year with his novel, Stranger, Camus addresses themes such as the meaninglessness of life and the absurdity of our existence.

So what is this Absurdism?

He explains Camus Absurdism (or Ridiculousness) using the concept of divorce and implies the compulsory but reluctant separation of two lovers. According to him, Absurt is “the divorce of the world that desires the hope and the mind, the unity is the longing, this is the contradiction that connects them with the scattered universe” 1.

While they are often confused with Existentialism, they are of course not the same. To put it briefly:

While nihilism argues that life really does not make sense and the effort to create meaning is useless, Existentialism maintains that people are in a universe without meaning and that they can create their own meaning. On the other hand, Absurdism admits that life has no meaning, and that the effort to find the meaning will ultimately fail; but he still says that people should accept Absurd (the contradictory coexistence of this meaningless world of humankind and those who are meaningless), and they should uphold it and continue to look for it.

It is not placed for a quiz by a creator to the human world and after death, it does not matter what it does in the world. We are not more than biological organisms on a small piece of rock in a universe of great size beyond our perception. While Camus accepts the absurdity and insignificance of our lives here, he avoids the pessimism of Nihilism. Yes, whatever we do, our lives will end, yes everything we do will be forgotten throughout our lives, but we still have to continue. Camus, who likens the person to Sisyphus: In Greek Mythology, the king, who forever carried a rock on a hill, was punished with re-transport after falling from the hill. And he adds: “It is necessary to think that Sisyphus is happy.”

Life can be lived happily during its lifetime. Sometimes a short time between friends, even the pleasure of eating or listening to a favorite song is enough to make us happy. One’s rebellion against meaninglessness is ultimately to be happy.

1, Le Mythe de Sisyphe sayfa 48

2. https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/5968/bright-evening-star-seen-from-mars-is-earth/?site=msl