The Myth of Sisyphus - wikipedia The Myth of Sisyphus For mythology regarding the Greek character Sisyphus, see Sisyphus. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. ( February 2017 ) This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. ( February 2017 ) This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. ( February 2017 ) The Myth of Sisyphus Cover of the first edition Author Albert Camus Original title Le Mythe de Sisyphe Translator Justin O'Brien Country France Language French Subject Existentialism, Absurdism Published 1942 ( Éditions Gallimard, in French ) 1955 ( Hamish Hamilton, in English ) Media type Print ISBN 0 - 679 - 73373 - 6 The Myth of Sisyphus ( French : Le Mythe de Sisyphe ) is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus. The English translation by Justin O'Brien was first published in 1955. In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd, man 's futile search for meaning, unity, and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide ? Camus answers, `` No. It requires revolt. '' He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man 's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, `` The struggle itself (... ) is enough to fill a man 's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy ''. The work can be seen in relation to other absurdist works by Camus : the novel The Stranger ( 1942 ), the plays The Misunderstanding ( 1942 ) and Caligula ( 1944 ), and especially the essay The Rebel ( 1951 ). Contents 1 Summary 1.1 Chapter 1 : An Absurd Reasoning 1.2 Chapter 2 : The Absurd Man 1.3 Chapter 3 : Absurd Creation 1.4 Chapter 4 : The Myth of Sisyphus 1.5 Appendix 2 See also 3 Sources 4 External links Summary The essay is dedicated to Pascal Pia and is organized in four chapters and one appendix. Chapter 1 : an absurd reasoning Camus undertakes the task of answering what he considers to be the only question of philosophy that matters : Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide ? He begins by describing the absurd condition : life is meaningless and nonsensical, but humans strive constantly for meaning and sense in it. Religious explanations have been disproved by science, but science in turn can only describe existence, it can not explain why there is existence or what its meaning or purpose is, as Spinoza among others believed it would one day be able to. Once stripped of its common romanticism, the world is a foreign, strange and inhuman place. Yet humans need meaning, even though it appears there is no meaning to be found. Much of life is characterised by such absurd paradoxes : we build our lives on the hope of tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death, the ultimate enemy ; we live as if we do n't know about the certainty of death. Science professes a sensible explanation of the world, but ends in fantastic stories of microscopic galaxies of atoms that can not be seen. This is the absurd condition and `` from the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all. '' It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought : the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when `` my appetite for the absolute and for unity '' meets `` the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle. '' He then characterizes a number of philosophies that describe and attempt to deal with this feeling of the absurd, by Heidegger, Jaspers, Shestov, Kierkegaard, and Husserl. All of these, he claims, commit `` philosophical suicide '' by reaching conclusions that contradict the original absurd position, either by abandoning reason and turning to God, as in the case of Kierkegaard and Shestov, or by elevating reason and ultimately arriving at ubiquitous Platonic forms and an abstract god, as in the case of Husserl. For Camus, who set out to take the absurd seriously and follow it to its final conclusions, these `` leaps '' can not convince. Taking the absurd seriously means acknowledging the contradiction between the desire of human reason and the unreasonable world. Suicide, then, also must be rejected : without man, the absurd can not exist. The contradiction must be lived ; reason and its limits must be acknowledged, without false hope. However, the absurd can never be accepted : it requires constant confrontation, constant revolt. While the question of human freedom in the metaphysical sense loses interest to the absurd man, he gains freedom in a very concrete sense : no longer bound by hope for a better future or eternity, without a need to pursue life 's purpose or to create meaning, `` he enjoys a freedom with regard to common rules ''. To embrace the absurd implies embracing all that the unreasonable world has to offer. Without a meaning in life, there is no scale of values. `` What counts is not the best living but the most living. '' Thus, Camus arrives at three consequences from fully acknowledging the absurd : revolt, freedom, and passion. Chapter 2 : the absurd man Camus then goes on to present examples of the absurd life. He begins with Don Juan, the serial seducer who lives the passionate life to the fullest. `` There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short - lived and exceptional. '' The next example is the actor, who depicts ephemeral lives for ephemeral fame. `` He demonstrates to what degree appearing creates being. '' `` In those three hours he travels the whole course of the dead - end path that the man in the audience takes a lifetime to cover. '' Camus 's third example of the absurd man is the conqueror, the warrior who forgoes all promises of eternity to affect and engage fully in human history. He chooses action over contemplation, aware of the fact that nothing can last and no victory is final. Chapter 3 : absurd creation Here Camus explores the absurd creator or artist. Since explanation is impossible, absurd art is restricted to a description of the myriad experiences in the world. `` If the world were clear, art would not exist. '' Absurd creation, of course, also must refrain from judging and from alluding to even the slightest shadow of hope. He then analyzes the work of Dostoyevsky in this light, especially The Diary of a Writer, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov. All these works start from the absurd position, and the first two explore the theme of philosophical suicide. However, both The Diary and his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, ultimately find a path to hope and faith and thus fail as truly absurd creations. Sisyphus by Titian, 1549 Chapter 4 : the Myth of Sisyphus In the last chapter, Camus outlines the legend of Sisyphus who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die. When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. Finally captured, the gods decided on his punishment for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain ; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death, and is condemned to a meaningless task. Camus is interested in Sisyphus ' thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. After the stone falls back down the mountain Camus states that `` It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself ! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. '' This is the truly tragic moment, when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but `` there is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn. '' Acknowledging the truth will conquer it ; Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that `` all is well, '' indeed, that `` one must imagine Sisyphus happy. '' Appendix The essay contains an appendix titled `` Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka ''. While Camus acknowledges that Kafka 's work represents an exquisite description of the absurd condition, he maintains that Kafka fails as an absurd writer because his work retains a glimmer of hope. See also Absurdism Eternal return Theatre of the Absurd The Sickness Unto Death by Søren Kierkegaard Sources The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays, Albert Camus, Alfred A. Knopf 2004, ISBN 1 - 4000 - 4255 - 0 External links Complete original text ( French ) Chapter 4 of the essay The Myth of Sisyphus, by Albert Camus SparkNotes on The Myth of Sisyphus Suicide and Atheism : Camus and The Myth of Sisyphus at the Wayback Machine ( archived October 12, 2007 ) by Richard Barnett The Absurd Hero by Bob Lane Works by Albert Camus Novels The Stranger The Plague The Fall A Happy Death The First Man Short stories Exile and the Kingdom `` The Adulterous Woman '' `` The Renegade '' `` The Silent Men '' `` The Guest '' `` The Artist at Work '' `` The Growing Stone '' Plays Caligula The Misunderstanding The State of Siege The Just Assassins The Possessed Essays The Myth of Sisyphus The Rebel `` Reflections on the Guillotine '' Resistance, Rebellion, and Death Summer in Algiers Non-fiction Betwixt and Between Neither Victims nor Executioners Notebooks 1935 -- 1942 Notebooks 1943 -- 1951 Nuptials BNF : cb12006961k ( data ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Myth_of_Sisyphus&oldid=789570735 '' Categories : 1942 essays Essays by Albert Camus 1942 books Philosophy essays Metaphors Hamish Hamilton books Éditions Gallimard books Albert Camus Hidden categories : Articles lacking reliable references from February 2017 All articles lacking reliable references Articles needing additional references from February 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles lacking in - text citations from February 2017 All articles lacking in - text citations Pages to import images to Wikidata Articles containing French - language text Webarchive template wayback links Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia বাংলা Български Català Deutsch Español فارسی Français ગુજરાતી 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Latviešu Македонски മലയാളം 日本 語 Norsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Português Русский Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 8 July 2017, at 04 : 09. 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Question: where does the title the myth of sisyphus come from
Answer: a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again