Why life is absurd by albert camus

For Albert Camus, life has no meaning, that is why, for him, life is absurd. He found no meaning
to why we exist and as to why we have to keep searching for the meaning of our existence. He also
thinks what is the use of falling in love or providing love, when all of us would just eventually die
someday. He also thinks that even though religion provides comfort to some people, it is still a concept
made with illusion for him.

Existentialism

Is a philosophical idea that deals with the nature of the existence of a person by his own
experience. It also deals with how they think, and how they act and feel as a human individual

Stages of grief by Elizabeth kubler ross

Stage 1- Denial. This is when we refuse to accept the fact of losing someone. We refuse to believe any
information relating to the happenings around us. Sometimes, this is much harder to escape when the
event is somewhat traumatic to some of us.

Stage 2- Anger. We deal with our emotions in different ways. Some of us can have an outburst of anger
when things happen beyond our control. We get mad with ourselves, or with others. We often put the
blame to other people.

Stage 3- Bargaining. This is the stage when we ask to compromise with other people. Usually with death,
some people would bargain to God. For example, asking what they could do instead. For break ups,
some also tend to ask if they can still remain as friends after breaking up.

Stage 4- Depression. This is when we spiral down to depression. There is this feeling that we can’t get
out from. We feel the sadness, regret, and uncertainty. This stage also refers to preparatory grieving.

Stage 5- Acceptance. This is when we accept the things that happened. We think of the devastating
event, but we learned to accept it. This stage differs from person to person.

4 levels of value by scheler

Level 1- Pleasure Values. This refers to the pleasant against the unpleasant. For example the sensual
feelings, the feeling we feel using our 5 senses. The feelings we feel like pain, or pleasure like from
eating sweet foods.

Level 2- Vital Values. This refers to the values pertaining to the well being, either of the individual or of
the community. For example, when we take into consideration our own health, we eat healthy foods
instead of the unhealthy ones.
Level 3- Spiritual Values. This refers to the values that is concerned with our own meaning, purpose, and
the way we value life. This is the value we follow in life that strengthen our relationship between other
people and the way we harmonize with them.

Level 4- Value of the Holy Objects. This refers to the value we have for objects that are intentionally
given as “absolute”. This is when we have belief with them and offer them adoration.

Synthetic a priori judgments by Immanuel kant

These are the kind of judgments that are universally true, but their truthfulness is not dependent or
based upon its mere definition.

Rationalism by 1. Rene Descartes 2. Benedict Spinoza 3. Gottfried lebnietz

1. Rene Descartes believes that all of our ideas are innate. And that reason is the source of
knowledge, not by experience. He also believes that God made us these ways with these kinds
of ideas. He also mentioned that we discover basic truths by intuition. This is when we grasp
basic connections between the ideas we already have.
2. Benedict Spinoza believes that the order and connection of ideas is the order and connection of
things. He also believes that God, nature, and the human mind were one entity, and
inseparable. He also mentioned that to understand nature is to understand God as God is
present everywhere and in everything.
3. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz believes that things seem to cause one another because God ordained
a pre-established harmony among everything in the universe. He also disagreed with John Locke
about the notion of our human brains started as a tabula rasa and that ideas don’t come from
experiences. He also mentioned that ideas are something we already have. These are already in
our minds and cannot be caused by any activity like the sense activity.

Empiricism 1. John Locke 2. George Berkeley 3. David hume

1. John Locke believes that a human mind is tabula rasa- a blank slate. We fill them up with the
sensual experiences. There are two stages of sensual experience, first is the process called
sensation. We feel things using our 5 senses. So upon perceiving the object, we then process
this to reflection, where we are fully aware of what the object is.
2. George Berkeley believes that to be is to be perceived. Meaning, objects exist because we
perceive them. A book exists because we are perceiving it. But if we are not perceiving the book,
it may not be existing. The reason why we are existing and not vanishing into thin air, because of
God, the Ultimate Perceiver. He is watching over us that is why we exist.
3. David Hume believes that causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience”.
A human being experiences the effect of an action because of his experiences through his
senses. Everything that we believe in is always connected to our experience.
View of humanity according to

1. Soren Kierkegaard believed that we have been alienated from God since we have been living for
too long in the world. He believed that humans have found the meaning of life through passion,
desire, and moral and religious commitments. All the choices people make should be something
they need to accountable of.

2. Friedrich Nietzsche believed that a judeo-christian moral code keeps the individual from
assuming full responsibility for his or her decisions.

3. Karl Jaspers believes that man is always more than what he knows or can know. He thinks we
are capable of doing better than what we know. We can always expand our own knowledge as
we try to exist on the world.

4. Albert Camus believes that life is absurd. For him, people are only wasting their time and effort
on finding meaning to life. Everyone eventually dies, so there is no absolute reason to further
explore the meaning of life.

Man according to

1. Plato believes that a man is divided into two forms. First form is the Body, the one that we see
physically. That is the body and a material entity. It is the vessel that enclose the second form,
which is the mind or soul. This is the entity that is immaterial.
2. Aristotle believes that man is a political man. Man is the sentient being, capable of rational
thinking. A man is a social creature that is also capable of moral reasoning. Since a man is
capable of moral reasoning, he is able to communicate to other people, thus be able to socialize.

Phenomenology of Love

. For Scheler, the heart is the most important sphere in the human being’s life. Love is something we can
feel and our heart is primary destined to love. Love makes us realize a lot of things. Love is not the same
with benevolence because it is not necessary that we feel love or be in love that we seek benefit from
the thing of person we love. Scheler also said that the main idea of love is that it is an act, not a reaction,
and also a movement of intention.

God is dead

For Friedrich Nietzsche, the Christian people living in Europe during his time has alienated themselves
from the reality that they should be believing. He wrote that God is dead on his book to free the minds
of the people from what they were currently believing in. He wanted to open their eyes again and be
freed from the illusion they have been during that time.

Man is truly human according to

1. Confucius believes that human have innate morality and that we all have the freedom to make
our own choices in life. When we already these set of choices in life, we then explore outside of
 our comfort zones and realize what we are capable of. Confucianism also believes about the
four virtues. And when incorporate those virtues in our life, we will become a better person and
extend those kindness and humanness to other people. That is when a man truly becomes a
human.

2. Man is truly human when they begin to experience suffering of Duhkha. When a man
experiences suffering, they begin to realize their own set of weakness, and when they realize
them, they will become aware of themselves. They will be someone who will find way to escape
the suffering and experience a better life.