The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus ( original French title: Le mythe de Sisyphe ) is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus in 1942, published by Gallimard in Paris. The first German translation in 1956 is titled The Myth of Sisyphus.

Classification in the work Camus '

The Myth of Sisyphus is next to Man in Revolt (L' homme révolté ) the most important philosophical work Camus '. In The Myth of Sisyphus Camus developed his philosophy of the absurd, which is closely related to existentialism. The essay is in the context of the play Caligula (premiered 1945) and the novel The Stranger (L' Etranger, 1942) to see since Camus covers the same subject in these three works. In The Plague, similar motifs are again.

Content

The absurd, one can not escape

For Camus, man finds himself in an absurd situation. The absurdity lies in the tension between the absurdity of the world on the one hand and the human longing for meaning or meaningful action. What are the consequences to be drawn from this situation, " without hope "?

Camus points to the inconsistency of the justified by the absurdity of suicide. Then he sits down with thinkers apart, which have recognized the absurdity of the human situation, in particular with Kierkegaard, Shestov, Dostoevsky, Heidegger, Kafka and Nietzsche. However, these thinkers have drawn in the poets their protagonists, after analyzing the situation, possibly with the exception of Nietzsche, the wrong consequences, by the absurdity - wanted to escape through an irrational " leap" ( saut ) - at the sacrifice of sound mind. This jump is depending on thinkers in the resort to metaphysical, aesthetic, religious or rationalist rescue services. Camus this:

"If there is the absurd, then only in the universe of man. Once this term is transformed into a springboard for eternity, he is no longer connected with the human clairvoyance. Then the absurd is not the evidence that determines the person without consent to it. The fight is then avoided. Man integrates the absurd and can thus be essential nature disappear, the contrast, disunity and divisiveness is. This jump is a Dodge. "

Permanent revolt and accepting the absurdity as a solution

There are three successive stages of dealing with the absurdity:

In the revolt against the absurd, in response to accepting the absurdity, the can realize " absurd man " himself and find freedom. The actual reason of the absurdity of death, however, Camus can not escape:

This man is like after Camus ' interpretation of the mythological figure of Sisyphus, his action appears as self-realization, especially in its extreme and persistent futility:

" Therein lies the hidden pleasure of Sisyphus. His fate belongs to him. His rock is his thing. [ ... ] The absurd man says yes and his efforts will not stop. If there is a personal fate, there is no higher destiny, or at least only one that he finds sinister and despicable. In addition, he knows himself to be master of his days. In this particular moment in which the man turns to his life, considered Sisyphus, who returns to his rock, the series of unrelated actions which become his fate, as created by him, combined under the gaze of his memory and soon sealed by the death. Thus convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man who wishes to see and know that the night has no end, he is always on the go. Still rolling the stone. [ ... ] This universe, which is now no longer knows the Lord, it is found neither barren nor worthless. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flash in this night -shrouded mountain is a world unto itself. The fight against summit is enough to fill a man's heart. We must imagine Sisyphus as a happy person. "

Translations

A first German translation appeared in 1956 under the title The Myth of Sisyphus in Karl Rauch Verlag. Translators were Hans Georg Brenner and Wolf Dietrich Rasch. An epilogue in the form of a commentary essays wrote Lieselotte judge. Published in 2000 a new translation of Vincent of Wroblewsky under the current title The Myth of Sisyphus.