Seeing The Absurd Meaning Of Albert Camus

JAKARTA - On November 7, 1913, a writer and philosopher named Albert Camus was born in the world. Camus hails from Algeria and his experiences there in the 30s dominated his thinking and work. Camer's parents were semi-proletarians, bound from the start to an intellectual circle with very revolutionary tendencies. Camus' interest in philosophy forced him to come to France at the age of 25.

Camus then joined the resistance movement during the occupation. After his release, he became a columnist for the newspaper Combat. Journalistic activities are a response to the demands of the times. In 1947, Camus retired from political journalism and began writing fiction and essays. His passion for the arts has also made him very active in theater as a producer and scriptwriter.

Citing Britannica, Camus also adapted the plays of Calderon, Lope de Vega, Dino Buzzati, and Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun. His love for theater can be traced back to his membership in L'Equipe, a theater troupe in Algeria.

Camus posed one of the most famous existentialist questions of the 20th century with an essay entitled The Myth of Sisyphus. One of his statements was "there is only one very serious philosophical problem and that is suicide." His philosophy of the absurd has left us with a striking picture of human fate through a character named Sisyphus.

In the essay, Sisyphus is depicted endlessly carrying a rock that is carried on his back to the top of the mountain even though he will repeatedly roll back each time he reaches the top. Sisyphus knows that the stone will fall back and gives him the awareness that the chain of life causes humans to have awareness of liberation from life, but not by committing suicide.

Quoting the journal The Meaning of Human Life According to Albert Camus by Astri Adriani Allien, through Sisyphus's story, it is described that before meeting absurd experiences, humans will live with hope and idealism. But after many times and finally finding various absurd things, that spirit will just collapse.

Furthermore, the awareness of life that exists at every moment will arise passion. This excitement is characterized by an awareness of "moments" which then develops into an awareness of "moments." This awareness is the absurd ideal.

After reaching this stage, humans will develop with an attitude of indifference. This attitude arises because they will feel free from all the rules and choices that bind them so that they do not have to choose or reject. Absurd humans are freed from all the burdens of dreams and hopes for the future.

Camus's philosophy earned him a reputation as a great moralist. It also involved him in conflict with his friend Jean-Paul Sartre, provoking the main political-intellectual schism of the Cold War era when Camus and Sartre became the leading intellectual voices of the anti-Communist and pro-Communist left respectively.

Furthermore, in posing and answering the pressing philosophical questions of our time, Camus articulated a critique of religion and all of its projects, including Marxism. In 1957 Camus won the Nobel Prize for literature. He died in a car accident in January 1960, at the age of 46.