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Comment by selmnoo | Hacker News Reader

That is the truth that I unfortunately learned too late, at least, way after I spent way too much time ruminating about concepts of free will and determinism. Now, I have a very dispiriting view of humanity (the fact that we evolved from primates who'd fight a lot, rape a lot, etc.), it does much to take away 'meaning' from my life. I wish I'd never spent the time I did thinking so much about all of these things alone in the late night. If I'd been more outgoing, more social, I think I would not have this negative and sorrowful outlook in life.

I strongly suspect that others pondering the Camus question of suicide are similarly alone or asocial. I encourage everyone to get busy in social doings -- it does a lot to take this off your mind and let you live life normally.

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So you're proposing to keep yourself as busy as possible with other people so that you avoid the unpleasantness that occurs when you're left alone with your thoughts?

I agree that your prescription will help the malaise, but isn't there a solution other than "be ignorant and blissful"?

It kind of is, yes. I wish I'd never been introduced to the concept of determinism -- it's pretty much made my life seem meaningless and joyless. And then there's evolutionary biology, which tells us we're innately wired to do certain very bad things, that it's in our nature to sometimes hurt other, have biases, etc.

Like the other poster suggested, Camus did not encourage suicide but used the concept of suicide to judge a philosopher's honesty. I'm not French nor do I speak the language, but I imagine that it has to be a truly uniquely French thing to have the ability to craft otherwise hoky verbiage into something this profound.

Camus continually uses the suicide allegory for philosophies that don't answer the question of the separation or alienation of the absurd character (us) from his own play (our lives). Hence the "stranger". For example, religion, as Camus delivers, is a type of philosophical suicide. Only the French can present such an unpallatable morsel with such fantastic grace! :-) If Camus' work is not a triumph of philosophy, it certainly has few rivals in style.

Camus, for me, is the hope we lost in the classical pessimists. (And, yes, I say pessimists like it's a good thing. Which it is!)

(Post script: I hear Camus' words as echoes of Rumi when he implores the stranger to regain his identity as a first class citizen of the Cosmos. Like the Buddha too said, we ought to imagine ourselves one with the universe ... we have to imagine ourselves scornfully happy!)

I think you might get something out of reading 'Happiness' by Matthieu Ricard.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007K9W0KM/

It's a nice rational introduction to Buddhist thought on happiness, which I thought might be relevant because of their acknowledgement of 'Dukkha', i.e. 'suffering'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha

Thank you very much for the suggestion! I will go ahead and buy the book.

I'm glad! It's possible to be happy without ignoring the facts of nature that you alluded to.

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