A Quote: Philosophy and Suicide

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.”

What a way to start a book! The is from Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays. He was a French existentialist writing during WWII, seeking to find a reason for living in an absurd world. (Spoiler: His conclusion is that life is worth living.)

A few gems from the first 15 pages or so:

“Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined.”

“For a man who does not cheat, what he believes to be true must determine his action.”

“It is always easy to be logical. It is almost impossible to be logical to the bitter end.”

[Illustrating how our actions, taken out of the context in which they have come to make sense to us, are meaningless and silly]:
“A man is talking on the telephone behind a glass partition; you cannot hear him, but you see his incomprehensible dumb show: you wonder why he is alive.”