The premise of the book revolves around the absurd — a philosophy or notion coined by Camus such that it is pointless to search for meaning in an incomprehensible universe.
Each philosopher uses and studies philosophy to different ends. Some study it purely for knowledge and some use it to make sense of the world. Here, Camus uses it as a vehicle for action. One of the main themes he explores is suicide in the context of suicide as a response to the absurd. He’s asking, “Should I kill myself?”
It is impossible to know if anything is real. Camus explains the leap of faith that we have to take in order to justify our understanding of universe. In both religion and empiricism, one must take this leap of faith: that God is real or that the laws of physics, math, science are true and our senses do not deceive us. We don’t know either of these to be true with absolute certainty and we will never know, hence the leap of faith.
He understands how suicide would be a natural response to an absurd life. It is absurd to search for meaning when there is none and it is absurd to hope for a continuance of existence after death. He is interested in the consequences of the absurd and asks the whether and how to live in the face of it. His main point details how to live our lives and make them worth living despite their meaninglessness. Sisyphus is his main driving point.
“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”If Sisyphus is a metaphor for life, how can I accept it like he did? Sisyphus has a brief moment of freedom in between the end of the day, where the rock rolls downhill, and the beginning of the day, where he must start over and push the rock uphill again. It almost reminds me of the 40 hour work week, where we push the rock uphill everyday for 8 hours and restart the next morning. It is the time between that is important; we all have responsibilities and things that we must do to support ourselves. In that off time, we can either wallow in self-pity or do what we love and enjoy. We always have a choice and I believe Camus is telling us to choose the latter.