We can think that this is not only Camus’ life motto and code of conduct, but also a highly generalized philosophy of his existence: do not seek immortality, but do everything in human resources. Facing the absurdity everywhere in life, Camus expounded the absurd in the same way that Nietzsche explained nihilism: diagnosing, describing, making it precipitate, and then raising it into a theoretical proposition: if life is absurd, how to define the absurd? Sisyphus’ life is absurd and worthless, is it worth living? Camus said: “To judge whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy.”
The absurd as a philosophical term originates from a Latin paradox of an ancient Christian, to the effect that the death of the Son of God is absolutely plausible, because it is absurd; he was buried and then resurrected, absolutely true, because this is not possible. This kind of conclusion is obviously a paradox, illogical, unreasonable, and contrary to human experience. However, it is interesting that some philosophers prefer this kind of paradox, like Nietzsche, who prefers rebellion against heaven, which Camus calls “philosophical suicide”: rational exposition often fails to get the point, so use the failure of rational exposition to justify the absurdity of belief . Kierkegaard and Shestov also know this. Kleinstein repeatedly pointed out the irrationality: divinity and human nature are in one, the so-called god-man or man-god, that is, infinity runs through finitude: Christ itself is an “absolute paradox”. For this theory, the Jews think it is absurd, the Greeks think it is crazy, and the rational people think it is extremely absurd. Shestov simply sees paradox as a “ridiculous consent word.” And Camus believes: “The absurd is the confirmation of the limitations of sober reason”, that is to say, the absurd and the paradox both depend on the contradiction: “The so-called absurd refers to the conflict between the irrational and the desire to be clear. .” Therefore, Camus’ theory of the absurd is based on the theory of contradiction. In other words, it is the contradiction between man’s desire for oneness and transparency and the insurmountable variety and obscurity of the world. Camus did not believe in the authority of kings, but was not convinced that reason had to be rejected, because reason is still useful within its limits.
In short, Camus’s theory of the absurd is not a concept, but, in his words, a “sense of the absurd,” a “passion,” a “perception,” a “mental illness,” Camus tried The pure description of this morbidity is aimed at clarifying whether this “feeling of the absurd” leads to suicide.
What is “absurdity”? “People are divorced from their lives, and actors are divorced from their backgrounds.” This kind of feeling is called absurdity. The feeling that we look in the mirror and see that we are not like ourselves is also called absurdity. And so on, there is a similar sense of absurdity in life from time to time.
What is “absurd perception”? When people face their own unreasonable disgust and feel degraded to their own value image, this self-knowledge is called “absurd perception”.
What is “Absurd Passion”? “Man is a useless passion” (Sartre), full of passion even though it is useless: knowing that freedom has come to an end, the future is hopeless, and constantly taking risks in order to resist despair, this is called absurd passion.
What is “absurd disease”? Once a person is deprived of fantasy and light, he feels that he is an outsider in this world. He wants to escape from himself at any time, but he has no choice but to stay in it. He is depressed due to anxiety and falls into a kind of depression caused by despair. In the “patient” consciousness, this “absurd disease” is likely to lead to suicide.
The exact opposite of the suicide is the death row, because the latter is obsessed with the scene of death, and seems to be about to fall into a dizziness. .” From this, we can imagine that “the absurd depends on people, and neither more nor less depends on the world.” The absurd is the only bond between the world and the world, tying the two together, just as only hatred can lock the world. This is an incurable disease.
In this way, we can define the “absurd man”! The absurd is the one who is inseparable from the world and time. Since he is a useless passion, it can also be said that the absurd is one who does nothing for eternity and who does not deny eternity. Once the absurd man is positioned in time, he no longer belongs to himself, but to time. The perpetual pain of the absurd is the perpetual pain of rebelling against time, the most ferocious enemy.