Philosophy Atlas

How Thinkers Disagree
Concepts

The Absurd

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

The absurd is Albert Camus's name for the confrontation between the human demand that life have meaning and a universe that answers that demand with silence. Camus argues in The Myth of Sisyphus that the absurd is not a property of the world alone nor of the human mind alone but the tension that arises only when the two are held together, and that the honest response to it is neither suicide, which ends the confrontation by ending the questioner, nor a religious or philosophical leap of faith, which ends it by pretending an answer exists.

Facts
Origin Year
1942 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

In Branch

Sources
1. Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySection 3, Suicide, Absurdity and Happiness: The Myth of Sisyphus
Quote, Section 3, Suicide, Absurdity and Happiness: The Myth of Sisyphus
This paradoxical situation, then, between our impulse to ask ultimate questions and the impossibility of achieving any adequate answer, is what Camus calls the absurd.
View the Source
1. Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIn Branch: MetaphysicsView the Source
1. Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyAssociated With: Albert CamusView the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.