When he thinks upon the meaning of his life and realizes there is none, that is when he is in crisis. Camus says that man must either recover or commit suicide (Camus 14). He says that suicide is an emotional response and one that is not authentic (Camus 9). The authentic recovery to this crisis, according to Camus, should be for man to revolt. Man can try to find meaning in the universe but when he does not find humanity in the foreignness he must reconcile to the absurd without human meaning. Because “the world is in itself not reasonable” man must be scornful towards it and its inability to be understood (Camus 21). This scorn implies “a total absence of hope...a continual rejection...and a conscious dissatisfaction” with the state of the conflict (Camus 31). While Camus describes this as scorn it is in this relationship with the absurd that man can be happy. It is “absurdity that determines [man’s] relationship with life” but Camus argues that “happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth” (Camus 21, 122). In the face of the meaningless of life, one must find scorn and happiness in the very absence of
When he thinks upon the meaning of his life and realizes there is none, that is when he is in crisis. Camus says that man must either recover or commit suicide (Camus 14). He says that suicide is an emotional response and one that is not authentic (Camus 9). The authentic recovery to this crisis, according to Camus, should be for man to revolt. Man can try to find meaning in the universe but when he does not find humanity in the foreignness he must reconcile to the absurd without human meaning. Because “the world is in itself not reasonable” man must be scornful towards it and its inability to be understood (Camus 21). This scorn implies “a total absence of hope...a continual rejection...and a conscious dissatisfaction” with the state of the conflict (Camus 31). While Camus describes this as scorn it is in this relationship with the absurd that man can be happy. It is “absurdity that determines [man’s] relationship with life” but Camus argues that “happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth” (Camus 21, 122). In the face of the meaningless of life, one must find scorn and happiness in the very absence of