Sisyphus and his rock
Albert Camus · The Myth of Sisyphus · 1942
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain, from which the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought, with some reason, that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor. Each day, the same effort; each evening, the stone at the bottom. Imagine this life of toil that leads nowhere and never ends: where is meaning to be found, if there is any at all?
Faced with this life of effort with no end and no result, where can meaning be found, or must we give up looking for one?
What it does in the debate
Supports Absurdism
Sisyphus rolls his rock forever, without hope or illusion; and yet, says Camus, 'one must imagine him happy': the worth of a life lies in the lucidity of the one who owns it, not in a meaning beyond it.
- Sisyphus is condemned to roll a rock forever to the summit, from which it at once falls back: effort with no end and no result, an image of our lives when no meaning comes to crown them.
- He has neither hope of ending nor illusion about his task; and yet, says , he can face it without bitterness: 'the struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart'.
- Neither hope of a hidden meaning nor flight into renunciation: to recognize the absurdity of his toil and make it his own is to take his fate back into his own hands, in awareness and .
Therefore So one can live fully without given meaning: 'one must imagine Sisyphus happy', for the worth of a life lies in the lucidity of the one who owns it, not in a meaning that would surpass it.