My book, In It Together, contains possibly my favorite statements from any philosopher ever, and that is this statement from Albert Camus: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
However, here is another quote from Albert Camus, from the same book, which is likewise a very powerful and very famous quote in philosophy:
Albert Camus (The Myth of Sisyphus) wrote: There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest— whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer. And if it is true, as Nietzsche claims, that a philosopher, to deserve our respect, must preach by example, you can appreciate the importance of that reply, for it will precede the definitive act.
Do you agree with Camus that the only truly serious question in philosophy (or, at least, the most important question in philosophy) is the question of whether life is worth living and why?
I imagine a lot of pseudo-philosophers who don't read books might like to play philosophy as a way to romanticize their angst or hateful pedantry. Consider an angry teenage rebel-without-a-cause who has never actually read a book but fanboys for Nietzsche (somehow, despite not having read any of his actual books). Or consider the many quick-to-anger ad-hominem-throwing folks on the internet getting into unproductive flame wars, whether in social media comment sections or even on "philosophy forums", who would love to mislabel what they do as serious philosophy.
Nietzsche literally wrote a book titled "The Science of Happiness" (with the title more often alternatively translated as "The Gay Science"). It's kind of easy to tell when someone who claims to love and agree with Nietzsche hasn't actually read any of his work. Many people use the false label of philosophy to falsely romanticize their seemingly self-chosen misery, instead of doing something really philosophical such as reading a book titled "The Science of Happiness".
Please don't read a tone into my words or otherwise between the lines. I say it all with friendly love.
Any book from the self-help section of a book store will be more than a million times more philosophical than the angry rants of an angry person about anything. Even when anger or hate is dressed up as refined intellectualism, which is even funnier when it's done by people who haven't read a book in years (if ever), it's still just what it really is under the flimsy mask.
In fact, if a book store has a self-help section--or, even better, an "inner peace and true happiness" section--then that would presumably have much more truly philosophical books than the so-called philosophy section. Man-made printed labels can be deceiving.
And there's a reason one type of book sells way more the other: One's audience is people who actually read.
And it's only that audience that contains real philosophers.
What do you think? Do you agree with Camus?
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My book, In It Together, is available for purchase from all major book retailers in both ebook and hardcover format.
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