Quotation
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“The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”
Albert Camus · Absurdism · Modern · 1942
What does it mean?
The absurd is born of a confrontation: the human need, and the unreasonable silence of the world. It is not a property of things and not a feeling you have on a bad day, though the feeling is how you notice it. A rival reading puts the absurd entirely in the world, as if the universe were hostile, or entirely in the person, as a taste for drama. He thinks both sides are required. Take away the need, or take away the silence, and the absurd does not appear.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Justin O'Brien. The absurd is not in the person alone and not in the world alone. It is born of the confrontation between a need for meaning and a world that does not answer. The sentence is a definition, not a mood.
Where it comes from
The Myth of Sisyphus, in Justin O'Brien's translation
Approximate date: 1942.
How to use it
A bereavement in a family in Glasgow produces the demand that it mean something, and the week does not answer. The sentence describes that clash. It does not say the dead person was meaningless, and it does not say you should stop asking. It says the clash itself has a name. The name is not a diagnosis of depression, though a person in that clash may also need a doctor. The philosophy does not replace the doctor.
A mindset reading
Definition first. The suicide question and the happy Sisyphus come after. People quote the consequences and skip the birth of the concept, then argue about a word they have relocated.
Understand the philosophy
O'Brien's Myth of Sisyphus is the essay. The absurd will be widened by readers into a style. The style is not the confrontation. The confrontation is specific enough to disagree with.
- meaning
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The absurd is born of a confrontation: the human need, and the unreasonable silence of the world. It is not a property of things and not a feeling you have on a bad day, though the feeling is how you notice it. A rival reading puts the absurd entirely in the world, as if the universe were hostile, or entirely in the person, as a taste for drama. He thinks both sides are required. Take away the need, or take away the silence, and the absurd does not appear.
Did Albert Camus really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Justin O'Brien. The absurd is not in the person alone and not in the world alone. It is born of the confrontation between a need for meaning and a world that does not answer. The sentence is a definition, not a mood.
Which work is it in?
The Myth of Sisyphus, in Justin O'Brien's translation Approximate date: 1942.