: In the world there is no rationality, faith and hope for the future. But a person who is trying to find the meaning of life has a choice - either to voluntarily leave this world, or to challenge meaninglessness and absurdity.

Absurd reasoning

The book begins with a note about "that the absurdity that has so far been taken as a conclusion is taken here as a starting point." The main question of any philosophy is the question of the meaning of life:

There is only one truly serious philosophical problem - the problem of suicide. To decide whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy.

The suicide admits, "that life is over, that it has become incomprehensible." But what is the basis of his choice? The decision to voluntarily leave life ripens "in the silence of the heart." At the same time, external events are only an impetus when "this smallness ... is enough for bitterness and boredom that have accumulated in the heart of a suicide to break out."

To understand what a person can choose in this situation, it is necessary to identify the factors that push a person to this action. The indifference of the world, the consciousness of one's mortality, the meaninglessness of life - all these are just ways of manifesting a sense of absurdity, among which, of course, the main thing is boredom:

Rise, trams, ... work, dinner, sleep; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... everything is in the same rhythm ... But one day the question “why?” arises. It all starts with this perplexed boredom.

Faced with the outside world, the mind is powerless to find the truth in itself and the world. This “clash between irrationality and the frenzied desire for clarity, whose call is given in the very depths of the human soul” is the cause of the absurd. A person wants to be happy and find the meaning of life, but the world does not give an answer to these questions. Man has reason, the world is incomprehensible, and absurdity is the connecting link between them. Denying the element of absurdity in life, a person does not solve the problem of meaning, but deprives himself of a reasonable choice. All thinkers jumped over the "absurd walls", offering care in religion and hope for the future. The author calls this “philosophical suicide,” since this approach does not solve the problem.

Faith in God does not give “eternal freedom”, but a person can be free in his choice and actions. Accepting the absurd, a person does not believe and does not hope for the future. He becomes free in his desire to be, deciding not to live a better life, but to survive in it as much as possible. The meaning of life is the conscious maintenance of the “life of the absurd,” rather than running from it to suicide. Such a revolt gives life a new meaning and beauty, since "there is no spectacle more beautiful than the struggle of the intellect with its superior reality."

Absurd man

What is a person taking absurdity? An absurd person is characterized by the following symptoms:

• Denial of absolute and moral values. This “does not mean that nothing is forbidden. The absurdity shows only the equivalence of the consequences of all actions. He does not recommend committing crimes (this would be childish), but reveals the futility of remorse. "
• The courage to live in an absurd world, denying suicide. An absurd man “enters this world with his rebellion, his clarity of vision. He forgot how to hope. The hell of the present has finally become his kingdom. ”
• Self-beliefin which "he gives preference to his courage and his ability to judge. The first teaches him to lead a life not subject to appeal, to be content with what is; the second gives him an idea of ​​its limits.Having assured himself of the finiteness of his freedom, the lack of future in his rebellion and the frailty of consciousness, he is ready to continue his deeds in the time that he was given life. ”
• Lack of religious faith and hope for the futurein which “an absurd man is ready to admit that there is only one morality that does not separate from God: this is morality imposed on him from above. But the absurd man lives without this god. ”

The author gives examples of various types of absurd man - these are Don Juan, Actor, Conqueror and Creator.

Don Juan gives love to all women, giving preference not to quality, but to quantity.

He does not leave the woman at all because he no longer desires her. A beautiful woman is always welcome. But he wants another, and that’s not the same.

Without hoping for anything, the seducer does not lose himself in the stream of changing women. He lives “here and now”: is it really important what will happen after death if there are so many pleasures ahead?

Actor lives its roles, "as if re-composing its heroes."

He portrays them, sculpts, he flows into the forms created by his imagination and gives his living blood to ghosts.

Heroes of different eras live in it. But death overtakes the actor and "you can’t compensate for those faces and centuries that he did not manage to translate on stage." The actor, like a traveler, follows the road of time. The play, played on stage, is a vivid illustration of the absurdity of life.

The Conqueror - This is usually an adventurer. Being the master of his own destiny, he achieves everything in his life span. What is the point of hoping for “memory in the hearts of descendants” if life ends? The goal of the Conqueror is to gain success in the present, since they are "transient, they have the power and limits of the mind, that is, its effectiveness."

Conquerors are those who feel the strength for a permanent life on these peaks, with full consciousness of their own greatness ... The conquerors are capable of the most.

All characters are united by signs of absurd thinking: awareness, faith in one's own strength and denial of hopes for the future.

Absurd creativity

An absurd person must be a creative person. Only creativity, expressing true freedom, can overcome the absurdity. The Creator clearly understands that he is mortal and his creations are inevitably doomed to oblivion. An artist, for example, simply depicts what he sees and experiences. He does not seek to explain the world, knowing "that creativity has no future, that your work will be destroyed sooner or later, and to believe in his heart that all this is no less important than building for centuries - this is not an easy wisdom of absurd thinking." Creativity is a rare opportunity to reconcile your consciousness with the absurdity of surrounding reality. The Creator gives shape to his fate.

The problems of the absurdity permeated all of Dostoevsky's work. In his novels, the outlook of an absurd person is clearly depicted. The writer managed to show "all the torture of the absurd world", but the Russian genius could not find a way out of the absurd deadlock. Calling to God, Dostoevsky only poses the problem of the absurd, but does not solve it. He is trying to give an answer, but "the absurd work, on the contrary, does not give an answer." Absurd creativity is “rebellion, freedom and diversity.”

The myth of Sisyphus

The book completes the sketch of the most striking absurd rebel in the history of mankind. This is Sisyphus, whom "the gods sentenced to raise a huge stone to the top of the mountain, from where this block invariably rolled down." The hero of the myth receives punishment for his earthly passions and love of life. It is known, “that there is no worse punishment than useless and hopeless work”, but the hero despises the lot that fell to him. His life is filled with a new meaning in which consciousness conquers fate, turning suffering into joy. The torment experienced by Sisyphus under the weight of a stone - this is a rebellion against the absurd world.

The existence of modern man is similar to the fate of Sisyphus - it is largely absurd, filled with boredom and meaninglessness.But a person can find the meaning of life by rejecting suicide. The sense of absurdity that arises as a result of the realization of the absurdity will allow him to overestimate his fate and become free.

Sisyphus teaches the highest fidelity, which rejects the gods and moves stones ... One struggle for the summit is enough to fill a person’s heart. Sisyphus should be imagined happy.