Camus In Ten Minutes 

This just reminded me of my first existential crisis in first grade when I learned that the sun would one day burn up the earth.

Life's not worth living, but it's certainly not worth dying over.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. Albert Camus

This guy is my fucking hero right now.

Camus' Sisyphus is like me at my job in the kitchen. I gotta throw out orders as fast as i can make it perfect, clean it all up, and come back the next day to do it all over again. It's stressful, shitty, and i go nuts everyday, but I find some kind of bliss in the middle of absolute hatred of the job.

I was going to be a philosopher but then I thought, "What's the point?"

I am a college student who recently got assigned an essay about Camus's definition of absurdity (specifically related to The Myth of Sisyphus). I've never studied philosophy, so you can imagine how confused I've been! I have watched many videos and read many explanations, but this one was by far the most helpful. Thank you.

I never knew until recently that when Sisyphus reached the top of the hill --- right after the boulder rolled down (again) --- as he was just about to head down the hill....there was this slight smile on his lips and a glint joy in his eye.

I love Camus - I consider him a source of hope. Does that make me weird?

Peter Wessel Zapffe has a great essay on the awareness of the futility of life. Animals don't seem to experience it, presumably because they have lower cognitive ability. Our ability to contemplate the futility of life makes it more difficult to live, but ultimately it's what makes humans human. In The Last Messiah, Zapffe compares this with the irish elk; an animal that had such massive antlers that they impaired it's ability to live. But, the antlers being such a defining feature, without them, it wouldn't be an irish elk. This is the absurd, the very thing that makes us human is what makes it difficult to be a human and by committing suicide - either physical or philosophical, we are removing exactly that what defines us and escape from the human condition.

I need Camus In Thirty Minutes

Really appreciate these videos, thank you for doing them

Your videos are criminally underrated and I really appreciate your efforts. Quality stuff, thank you!

Life is a mystery 😊. We spend every day analyzing why we are here instead of just living our life .

you’ve been the best at explaining this at its most basic. Thank you sir

Thank you for making these wonderful videos! I love your channel.

Thank you Eric Yours is my favorite philosophical youtube channel by far. Please keep up the good work and thank you very much in advance

Brilliant and concise intro. I'll get a copy of The Myth of Sisyphus tomorrow. Thanks for sparking my interest!

You did a really good job summarizing Camus. Subscribed.

Excellently done! Really enjoyed your production.

Thank you Eric!! You did fantastic in explaining Albert Camus and the absurd all in 10min!

That is really funny for me. I always tell my friends that if I'd go to hell I'd find something good to do there. Actually for me life, anywhere, is what you make of it.

Really good 10 min. description, Thanks!

Really enjoyed it, simple choice of words useful for non-natives therefore comprehensive. Good accent and clear enough. Good images.

Great video - excellent images and editing and content 🔥☯️🔥

Great work Eric !! keep doing them (Y)

Brilliant exposition. Thank you!

This was surprisingly good. I'd like to add some things even if it makes your 10 minute rule burst. And maybe its only my view on Camus theory. I like to examine the more practical part of his theory, mainly desperation and the emotion of the absurd. Suffering and escaping your fate by holding up ideas can make you suicidal (in both ways). You doenst merely overcome your condemnation by only enjoying your situation. This only can be the consequent of your revolt. The absurd tells you to get rid of unclear reasons and forces you to live hopelessly because of the narrowed range of judgment it allows you to do without paying attetion to any reason to life. Desperation is the principal way of avoiding suicide. Not only because you pay more attention to the absurd and live more sincerely (thats too vague). Hopelessness forces you to rely your passion on the small amount of things you can feel and assume in the absurd, without looking for overstated ideas. By adjusting your way of sensing you accept fate, restrict your expectation and exhaust your passion. You illuminate things to what they really are (unfamiliar, mute, mindless) and this enables you to revolt by putting the highest amount (quantity) of freedom and passion into your limited situation (limited to the possiblitys of human nature) instead of requiring safety and answers from the world you wont get anyway. Its a limitation which gives you freedom. And in my opinion its a good way to explain happiness and misery in general and can make you believe in Sisyphus' happiness without looking for empirical reasons. Anyway I think in 10 minutes you talked about the most important parts about the absurd. Thanks!

I imagine there's more subtlety to his actual arguments than what is presented here. Even so, to rebel against a force that is unaware is utterly pointless. His example of enjoying prison illustrates this. If there's no entity getting satisfaction out of the achievement of your imprisonment, then you aren't frustrating anyone's intent by enjoying it. It's only an act of defiance if there's someone to be annoyed by it.

Thanks for making this. Saw more interesting content on your channel. Subscribed.

Excellent explanation. Thank you !

I just discovered your channel via r/philosophy and am enamored! Thank you!

Stumbled upon this guy through a random RU-vid recommendation a couple months ago. Read is book the myth of Sisyphus and he has put my thoughts into words. He has identified my thoughts for me. Shocking his work isn’t more popular but also understandable as people don’t want to be aware of the absurdity to life. And once known, there is no going back.

Thank you for another great one in your video series I am pleased you channel exists

I'm currently reading Sisyphus right now, and with this video... I don't know if I should still continue. Damn. It was all wrapped up nicely. I'm pleased with your video but I'm not pleased with my situation.

Wonderful and lucid explanation of human existence. We must find happiness even in our most fruitless endeavors that encompass the majority of our lives. The Existential Man is a hero because he just doesn't accept the lies that have been handed down from one generation to another since antiquity.

Thank you Eric - I enjoyed watching these. I particularly thought the Sartre video was great.

The best video on the myth of sysiphus on RU-vid

Here, take my subscription. You made me understand some points (that had never been clear) of the ideal attitude towards to absurd. I'm not sure if Wittgenstein will agree with this, but this a great example of philosophy as therapy.

Rest in powerful peace 🙏 Albert Camus 7 November 1913 ~ 4 January 1960⚘

There is no justice unless you're Swiss. -Gen Gev

thank you for this wonderful video!!

To You Tube staff. I am sorry to read thar you find my ''sharing'' to much recently. I do this seldom, but both as I found this excellent presentation of the genial Camus - and so inspiring and relevant for those addressed folks - as well as I thought it plausible to recommend - and make my friends quite aware of You Tube's good work on all the diversified and wide-spread topics. All kind of cultural stuff in digestible doses. But happy Christmas and the new year anyway. - Sincerely, M.Sk.

"All that remains is a fate whose outcome alone is fatal. Outside of that single fatality of death, everything, joy or happiness, is liberty. A world remains of which man is the sole master"

Sir, thank you very much for your brief but detailed explanation!

so his plan to beat a complete breakdown into existential despair is to have fun. ok Al, i'll try

Basically camos questions what some people question- and asks: what is life about? What is happiness ?

There is a ton of shit-posts on youtube. This is the antithesis of a shit post. Amazing video, and great writing!

Hey man, great channel

I'm so greatful to u for making this video because I had a confusing dream last night and I'm certain I know what it means now.

You did a good job on the video

great job with this!

Good work! Thanks!

Thanks! I think it was perfect my IB students reading the Plague!

Absolutely brilliant... the man and his rationale. How does one find contentment and enjoyment in one's absurd repetitive existence?

Nice work!!!

any thoughts about English translations of Camus? I would be very grateful to hear any.

Very informative and easy to understand video!

Marvelous! Many...many thanks!

his work and writings have so many layers. im reading a book now filled with some essays of his.. may have to read it again haha

Very well done. Thank you for that!

Wow. Great video. Perfect!

Watching this video is one of very few instances I feel lucky with my current state of severe disillusionment and critical mind. Because I fucking loved it. And it probably causes most viewers to squirm, quickly exit, and wish they could go back in time before clicking on it. Although you made it very funny, so I don't know. Anywho, thanks. Everything summarized about Camus made sense to me, except the ending: 9:31 "Sisyphus's happiness is living his weight of days with a full and lucid cognizance of his absurd lot, together with a defiant nonacceptance of it, all of which propels himself forward into become enchanted with his life." I am a Camus newb. But I failed to understand this part. That lucid cognizance will drag you back, not propel you forward. And defiance against absurdity seems to me not a source of motivation to keep living but rather the consequent rationalization to keep living after being somehow propelled forward in the first place. Perhaps Camus was inspired by something to keep living. Perhaps he needed to rationalize continuing life after realizing he couldn't bring himself to commit literal suicide. Thoughts?

We have such questions because of our dissatisfaction w/ the sufferings inherent in living. Perfectly normal. Each person must find comfort and solace as life unfolds in time. We have many resources, and most find ways to endure and even thrive. Love, faith, art, work, music, and on and on. Remember though, we are all here but a short time.

E.D.! Chris from the Psych told me to go on youtube and google you. Awesome stuff, my friend!!!! ~Alex

Eric, well done Sir.

Spot on, most of it. One needs to be strong enough to make one's life valuable.

Mr Dodson's presentations are clear and straightforward. I enjoy these much - reading all of the philosophers books would be tedious and because of length confusing. I see these as wonderful Cliff's Notes, something I would like to have on Sam Harris's 2 hour podcasts. So maybe Mr Dodson could create short summaries of some of Sam or Jordan Petersons long long discusions. 10 minutes on our smartest living brainiacs. (and even the passed Christopher Hitchens)

I think that there can be a line drawn between Camus and Taoism, if someone is willing to debate on the subject I'd be happy to do so.

I recently re-read Camus' The Stranger. I would like to have an opinion on a question that occurred to me after reading. As I know from one of Mr Dodson's videos, a common reproach made towards Nihilism is the fact that it offers no ethical guidance. And in fact, I'm having trouble finding any strong ethical principle in The Stranger. If I understood correctly, Meursault realized at the end of the book that there is value in his life as such and in its uniqueness, rather than in some kind of postmortal redemption. So one could argue that one reason why one shouldn’t shoot an Arab at a beach is because if one is caught and condemned to death, this value would be lost. But obviously, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, since it’s technically possible to murder without getting caught and also because this would award a kind of „moral-compass-function“ to the death sentence („don’t murder or else you’ll die and lose the value of your own life“) and thus validate it, which certainly wasn’t Camus’ intention at all. I guess one could also say that murder is unethical since it robs the victim of whatever would have been left of their life, which - according to Camus - would have been of value in any case. But that seems kind of vague.

Very good introduction. Thank You. Could You make a video about Amor Fati of Marcus Aurelius and Nietsche and others. I find the idea very good but hard in my personal life. Similarities with buddhism, mindfulness and modern gognitive therapies. Ancient is allways actual. Veikko Tarvainen from Finland

Great summary, I love Camus .

I wish i had one of those existential crises myself. Sounds so cool

Very nice summary!

Much obliged

Life is both important and unimportant at the same time

Brilliant pictures support the brilliant text. If it would be possible to have more often pictures wit lectures it would be nice but I suppose it would take too much time from you. Fine that you make fine youtubelectures.

Beautiful!

Probably the best way to summarize five full pages of notes. You should do one for Rollo May, or at least an intro piece.

nice work

would you please consider making a video about Arthur Schopenhauer? I really wonder how you would construe his ideas because I personally think he beautifully explains the futility of existence.

Great Video Great Narration

Great job!

This is fantastic

That was awesome!!

Thanks for sharing, he is my philosophical lodestar

great video man gj

thanks for these videos. Your voice reminds me of Adam Carolla. These summaries are very helpful, as I can have a hard time understanding sometimes when I read

Very good!

Great video.

Hey hope you don't mind but if I use some still shots for educational memes about Camus. Love the guy and like you for presenting him in such an understandable format. You existentially rock bro!

I appreciate the contribution of Albert Camus.

You are the best!

Peter Weasel Zapffe has a great essay on the awareness of the futility of life. Animals don't seem to experience it, presumably because they have lower cognitive ability. Our ability to contemplate the futility of life makes it more difficult to live, but ultimately it's what makes humans human. In The Last Messiah, Zapffe compares this with the irish elk; an animal that had such massive antlers that they impaired it's ability to live. But, the antlers being such a defining feature, without them, it wouldn't be an irish elk. This is the absurd, the very thing that makes us human is what makes it difficult to be a human and by committing suicide - either physical or philosophical, we are removing exactly that what defines us and escape from the human condition.

Loved it! Camus is one of my most favorite along with Schopenhauer. When will you do one on Schopenhauer?

I feel a lot better now.

Read The Stranger snd The Rebel in high school. Fascinating ❗

awesome stuff

Very useful. Thanks.

Brilliant. Love Albert Camus.