The School of Life
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2018–2022
9:37 · 3.2M views · May 15, 2015
A School of Life animated overview of Albert Camus, covering his existentialism and absurdism and his answer to the question of meaninglessness.
Offered as an accessible introduction to Camus and absurdism.
3 comments from Hacker News
Absolutely. Thanks for this. It's telling to me how dismissive/judgemental are about nihilism, and that's been a good signal for me in other areas that it's getting a lot closer to a basic truth and people are threatened with it and want to push it away. Which is what we shouldn't be doing. Optimistic Nihilism ( [LINK] ) or Absurdism ( this video ) are maybe more accessible takes if nihilism seems too "scary".
“The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus, if you find yourself worrying about existential nihilism then this is the book for you. I found it extremely useful after an intense psychedelic experience. The School of Life has a good overview of his brand of existentialism here this video
Haha. yes, nice one. Fits in line with Albert Camus's viewpoint which puts a positive light on it, in similar fashion this video But I am also coming to a conclusion that we shouldn't really let the scale of universe come in way -- but if we can let it affect things positively, great, no harm. Reason being: For anything to make sense, it has to have some context (example: these words make sense to you, but not to one who doesn't know English). When we make the context (or space, or time) unfathomably larger, things we have control over lose their meaning, their impact, it literally becomes nonsense? And so we should probably keep it away. Good as a thought exercise & fun, but impractical. Now you can counter-argue saying what's "practical," but that defeats the point :)