Albert Camus was born in French-occupied Algeria, from his teen years all Camus could see was pain and suffering around him. His early life was full of despair and made him contemplate the meaning of life. The suffering around him and in his personal life made him wonder if there was any point in this suffering. He later served as a Journalist for the wars and further slipped into despair seeing what man was capable of. But, instead of falling for Nihalism, Camus formulated his theories based on absurdity. Camus’ positive outlook was challenged by existentialism in Europe but his philosophy of the absurd remains relevant to date.

An absurd life

Much like his colleague, the French philosopher contemplated the meaning of life. Throughout his Journalism years in the Wars, he looked for a meaning behind human suffering but failed to find one. The more Camus contemplated, the more he concluded that there was no meaning behind the suffering. The world was absurd, and looking for meaning behind everything was futile.

Camus instead concluded that we as humanity share common goals like finding the meaning of life. The French philosopher was one of the first writers to work on collective consciousness. Camus through his experiences believed that every human shares common goals and these goals could be achieved through cooperation and working together. Camus believed rebellion to be a creative act and inverting power dynamics leads to further violence. He believed understanding this shared human nature can help humanity.

Is life meaningless?