November 01, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Why not Suicide in the face of the Absurd?
Platonism is a gibberish philosophy that
has no experimental substantiation and is no different from religion.
It is of course with the benefit of the
hind sight that I can so gleefully make the above comment of such disdain
against a man of such supreme intellect as Plato.
In fact, this is the fundamental drawback
of any kind of philosophical discourse or proposition that it is often based on
loose interpretations of observable realities.
So Camus out rightly rejects such kind of
baseless and illogical arguments that tired to reconcile with absurdity either
through religion/god or through vague philosophical ideas such as Platonism.
So then did he contemplate suicide as the
solution to this paradox of absurd?
Yes, of course he did as that would be the
“logical” solution though it still bothers me that why he did not consider the
problem of reproduction.
(Camus himself married though he was a
strong critic of the institution of marriage, had numerous sexual affairs and
flings, and reproduced a set of twins in spite of all his philosophical
discourse on the uselessness and meaninglessness of life; even the wisest and
thoughtful are after all apes and cannot fight their biological drive and
proclivity).
But what did Camus have to say about the
real suicide and death?
Would that be the next best thing left for
a rational human ape?
Just see how Camus puts the strange duality
of human life for his own self:
“I think my life is of great importance,
but I also think it is meaningless.”
This gives an insight to his mind which
certainly did not profess suicide as a solution to the paradox of absurd and
yet he makes a beguiling assertion that people do commit suicide in a more
allegorical sense.
Camus argued that people who desired to
escape the Paradox of the Absurd most commonly resorted to religion that
promises ascension to heavens and after-life.
This sort of escapism and denial of reality
was nothing but commission of “philosophical suicide” as it was a transparent
act of intellectual and logical hara-kiri.
This “philosophical suicide” does provide
psychological relief and comfort to the adherents but that does not take way
the paradox of absurd that is confronting right at their faces at every point
of space and time.
What was the logical basis for Camus to
reject death on the face of meaninglessness of our lives?
Camus rejected the idea of death or suicide
on the basis of logic saying that without man the paradox of absurd will cease
to exist because this paradox arises only because of the human desire to seek
meaning of his life.
In reality there is no paradox even if the
universe lacks any purpose or meaning since per se it does not have to have a
reason (and not explanation) for its existence.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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