Camus claimed that all explanations for meaning, either by science or by religions are top down. Science starts from a theory, like evolution, and reduces meaning down to something akin to “survive and reproduce”. Yet it fails to acknowledge the intangible qualities of life.
Religion on the other hand starts from a value and then argues that it is the meaning of life. Stoicism for example focuses on control of the self and living naturally. Christianity focuses on the acknowledgement of our sins and accepting them.
He calls this “philosophical suicide”. Neither of these make arguments from the bottom up. That is, from the basis that there is no meaning and then finding a satisfying way to get to meaning.
This is, he says, because any time one tries to do this, they in essence fail. You meet the absurd.
Connections
A Horizon of Context Required To Equate Value
Science Removed The Explanations For Our Suffering
Reference
� The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays